The Next Big ThingAt seventy-three, Herz is facing an increasingly bewildering world. He cannot see his place in it or even work out what to do with his final years. Questions and misunderstandings haunt Herz like old ghosts. Should he travel, sell his flat, or propose marriage to a friend he has not seen in tirthy years ? The letters he writes and does not send and the passers-by he encounters remind him how out of touch he is, how detached from the modern world. Yet Herz believes that he must do something, only he doesn't know what this next big thing in life should be... In her most beguiling novel yet, Anita Brookner's darkly comic, beautifully drawn and wonderfully sympathetic portrait of Herz reveals all the anxieties and consolations of old age. |
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accepted afternoon anxious asked aware Bad Homburg Baden-Baden Beau Rivage Beddington Bernard Simmonds Bijou Frank Bonn brief Buddenbrooks café Chiltern Street coffee company of strangers course doctor doubt dream Edgware Road enjoyed entirely eyes face fact Fanny Fanny's fantasy father feel felt flat Freddy Freddy's friends girl hand Herz Herz's Hilltop Road holiday imagine instinct Josie Julius kind knew lease leave less letter live longer looked managed marriage meet memory mind morning mother move never night Nyon obliged once Ostrovski parents past perhaps pills plans pleasure Poppelsdorf present public garden regret remember sadness seemed sense smile somehow someone Sophie Clay Sophie's sort supposed surely Ted Bishop telephone things better Thomas Mann thought told took walk window wished woman women wondered young