Any Human Heart, William Boyd, 2002

A huge, sprawling wonderful novel tells the story of Logan Gonzago Mountstuart from public school in Birmingham, UK to his death in his 80’s in southwest France.  And what a life it is—writer, spy, friend to the famous and mighty, professor in Nigeria, and on and on in a magnificent arc proving that life is truly contingent, filled with good luck and bad, and ultimately one faces its outcome quite alone.