Nothing to be Frightened of

‘I don’t believe in God, but I miss him.’ Julian Barnes’ new book is, among many things, a family memoir, an exchange with his brother (a philosopher), a meditation on mortality and the fear of death, a celebration of art, an argument with and about God, and a homage to the French writer Jules Renard. Though he warns us that ‘this is not my autobiography’, the result is like a tour of the mind of one of our most brilliant writers. When Angela Carter reviewed Barnes’s first novel, Metroland, she praised the mature way he wrote about death. Now, nearly thirty years later, he returns to the subject in a wise , funny and constantly surprising book, which defies category and classification – except as Barnesian. Publication Dates Jonathan Cape: 6 March 2008 LRB Limited Edition: available 14 March 2008 (signed on 4 March) Random House Canada: 15 April 2008 Knopf: 5 September 2008 Order a copy online via Random House, Amazon.co.uk, Random House Canada, Amazon.ca, Knopf, Amazon.com, or one of a number of local independent booksellers. Note: Newsnight Review (BBC 2) will feature Nothing to be Frightened of on 7 March 2008. Barnes will be reading sections of his new work. Visit the website to watch the program.
UK Publicity Laura Hassan (lhassan@randomhouse.co.uk) Publicity Director Jonathan Cape and Yellow Jersey		Canadian Publicity Sharon Klein (SKlein@randomhouse.com) Random House of Canada		US Publicity Kathryn Zuckerman (kzuckerman@randomhouse.com) Deputy Director of Publicity Alfred A. Knopf

Editions

Nothing to be Frightened of. London: Jonathan Cape, 2008.

Nothing to be Frightened of. London: LRB Limited Editions, 2008.

Nothing to be Frightened of. Random House Canada, 2008.

Nothing to be Frightened of. New York: Knopf, 2008.

Reviews

Summerscale, Kate. 'Julian Barnes: Life as he knows it.' Telegraph, 1 March 2008 [Includes interview].

Taylor, Alan. 'Gone Tomorrow.' Sunday Herald, 1 March 2008.

Carey, John. 'Nothing To Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes.' The Sunday Times, 2 March 2008.

Spurling, Hilary. 'Colder but wiser.' The Guardian, 2 March 2008.

Anderson, Hephzibah. 'Julian Barnes Ponders Wrung Chicken Necks, Death, God in Memoir.' Bloomberg.com, 3 March 2008.

Lawson, Mark. 'Julian Barnes.' Front Row, 3 March 2008 [Radio interview].

Dodd, Philip. 'Julian Barnes.' Night Waves, 4 March 2008 [Radio interview].

Barber, Lynn. 'Julian Barnes Dances around Death.' Telegraph, 5 March 2008.

Beresford, Lucy. 'Intimations of Mortality.' New Statesman, 6 March 2008.

Shilling, Jane. 'Julian Barnes: Nothing to be Frightened of.' Sunday Times, 7 March 2008.

Tayler, Christopher. 'Into the Void.' Guardian Review, 8 March 2008.

O'Connell, John. 'Julian Barnes: Interview.' TimeOut, 13 March 2008 [Interview].

Hennessy, Val. 'Sorry but dying's a dead cert.' Mail on Sunday, 14 March 2008.

Herbert, Susannah. 'Julian Barnes: not dead yet, just dying.' Sunday Times, 16 March 2008 [Interview].