The Finkler Question Book

Three old friends, the recently widowed Libor Sevcik and Samuel Finkler, and the romantically bewildered Julian Treslove, spend an evening dining at Libors impressive central London apartment. Treslove is a significantly neurotic former BBC radio producer of a radio show performed in the small hours of the morning and feels his life has been destined towards disaster. Sam Finkler is a distinguished scholar of moral philosophy, has published several popular books and can't bear Libor goading him into admitting to being an anti-Semite, despite being a Jew himself. Libor is a Jewish Czechoslovakian former teacher, who cared passionately about teaching the lessons of life but little about the need to pass exams, and who despite being charming, charismatic and popular with a string of famous beautiful women, had only eyes for his beautiful wife Malkie. The evening's discourse involves sharing memories of times before they had experienced love and, before they had considered anything so valuable to be concerned to despair of its loss. Is it better to have never known love? On his way home, Treslove melancholy stems from his friend's unbearable sadness rather than his own failure to find the love of his life. This gloom is interrupted by a violent assault, which not only hurts him physically but having been undertaken by a woman causes Treslove to question his masculine identity and purpose. "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.Read More