The Finkler Question Hardcover – 2 Aug. 2010

'He should have seen it coming. His life had been one mishap after another. So he should have been prepared for this one...' Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other - or with their former teacher, Libor Sevcik, a Czech always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results. Now, both Libor and Finkler are recently widowed, and with Treslove, his chequered and unsuccessful record with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine at Libor's grand, central London apartment. It's a sweetly painful evening of reminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before they had loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before the devastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. 

Better, perhaps, to go through life without knowing happiness at all because that way you have less to mourn? Treslove finds he has tears enough for the unbearable sadness of both his friends' losses. And it's that very evening, at exactly 11:30 pm, as Treslove, walking home, hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country, that he is attacked. And after this, his whole sense of who and what he is will slowly and ineluctably change. "The Finkler Question" is a scorching story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging, and of the wisdom and humanity of maturity. Funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one of our finest writers at his brilliant best.

REVIEW

`The opening chapters of this novel boast some of the wittiest, most poignant and sharply intelligent comic prose in the English language' --Scotsman

`How is it possible to read Howard Jacobson and not lose oneself in admiration for the music of his language, the power of his characterisation and the penetration of his insight? ... The Finkler Question is further proof, if any was needed, of Jacobson's mastery of humour'
--The Times

`The Finkler Question (longlisted for this year's Man Booker prize) is full of wit, warmth, intelligence, human feeling and understanding. It is also beautifully written with that sophisticated and near invisible skill of the authentic writer. Technically the characterization is impeccable, the prose a subtle delight, the word selection everywhere perfect, the phrase-making fresh and arresting without self-consciousness' --Observer

`This funny, furious and unflinching look at friendship, loss and growing older shows Jacobson writing at his brilliant best.' --Guardian

'On this form, Jacobson has better claims than anyone to be called the greatest novelist working in Britain today. Perhaps this funny, wise, irreverent, continually thought-provoking novel will finally earn him the literary laurels he deserves.' --Mail on Sunday

WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2010
--The Man Booker Prize

`Our funniest living writer ... no writer cherishes the language more' --Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph

`The depth of human understanding and lightness of touch combine in beautiful and compelling ways.'
--Sir Andrew Motion, chair of the Man Booker Judges

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An award-winning writer and broadcaster, Howard Jacobson was born in Manchester, brought up in Prestwich and was educated at Stand Grammar School in Whitefield, and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied under F. R. Leavis. He lectured for three years at the University of Sydney before returning to teach at Selwyn College, Cambridge. His novels include The Mighty Walzer (winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize), Kalooki Nights (longlisted for the Man Booker Prize) and, most recently, the highly acclaimed The Act of Love. Howard Jacobson lives in London.

PRODUCT DETAILS

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; First Edition (2 Aug. 2010)

• Language ‏ : ‎ English

• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781408808870

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1408808870

• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 20.3 x 25.4 x 4.7 cm