So elegant is Barnes’ prose that it’s easy to overlook his comic talents...this is Barnes cementing his reputation as a lively, curious reader as well as one of Britain’s best living writers.

Engaging, eloquent, entertaining and erudite... There is a capacious generosity throughout this book, and I would defy anyone not to leave without feeling both better informed and better disposed... It is rare indeed for a collection of occasional pieces such as this to inspire feelings of profound thankfulness.

A truly wonderful collection.

The book relies on stylish intelligence and cool calm to accomplish its mastery… This is a coquettish book. Barnes flatters readers into feeling that they may be as shrewd, discriminating and attractive as he is.

A devastatingly brilliant critic.

As for the other essays, they all represent Barnes at his most engaged and, in his way, passionate... When he cares about something, you know it.

The parallels between Barnes's essays and his fiction run much deeper. The Sense of an Ending asks to be read twice, once to listen to what the narrator has to say, and a second time to hear what he is busily avoiding or repressing, and many of these essays work in a similar way… His collection is also full of unexpected pleasures… Even the index is brimming with jokes. Such local surprises are typical of the book as a whole, which encourages readers to dip and rewards them for lingering.

There are many delightful biographical and bibliographical details among the literary criticism… Two recurring themes emerge from this anthology: France and death. Barnes is a keen observer of both lands.

A wonderfully learned and witty guide to how fiction operates.

Man Booker Winner’s essays on fellow writers – magnificent.

Julian Barnes is…punctilious. Collecting up here sundry reviews and introductions he has published since 1996 about writers who matter to him, he has unified them not just with a brief introduction asserting the priority of fiction.

The index to Julian Barnes’s new collection of essays strikes a playful note, a whimsy meant to undercut any danger of pomposity in his writing.

Julian Barnes reminds us what an exhilarating experience it can be to read a really good critic.

A compulsive page-turner.

Barnes’s passion for his writers is infectious.

Blissfully intelligent.

The temptation to turn away is powerful, but the rewards for resisting it are considerable. These essays combine a scholarly breadth of knowledge with a powerful sense of the absurdities of the creative life.

Through the Window is a wonderful and very interesting collection of essays that rewards close, and also measured, reading.

A masterclass display of versatility... mood and style in these richly concise, crisply written pieces are confidently varied, too... adding vitality to the virtuosity is a terrific ear for idiomatic speech

A writer who reveals the power of the short story to speak for our time

O’Connor is a gifted storyteller… [He] has a wonderful ear for dialogue and is a master of the telling phrase

This collection is beautiful; full of pure, simple truths that linger long in the mind