The Booker Prize winning novel does not disappoint. Using the first-person narrator model and compressing and expanding the narrative which is largely a “look back” feels much like Ian McEwan and works well. Anthony Webster, now a mid-60s, retired, divorced pensioner living outside of London revisits his high school/Bristol University days when a letter arrives informing him of an inheritance—500 pounds and the diary of his chum Adrian Finn, a suicide in his early 20’s and gone 40+ years. The inheritance was left by the mother of his ex-girl, Veronica, who had hooked up with Adrian after her relationship with Tony. Complications abound and the main theme is how flawed and frail are memory and therefore, our personal history. Aging, the increased pace of time passing, nostalgia, and our ultimate inability to “know” what has happened interweave an excellent plot, lifelike characters, and superb prose. Bravo, though the NYT reviewer Geoff Dyer was quite negative.