Julian Barnes and Anna Guitart

Julian Barnes explains that “Though I was introduced to literature as part of my schoolwork, and was beginning to see how it might have connections to real life, I thought of it mainly as a subject on which I would have to pass examinations.” This is why his participation at Kosmopolis is so pertinant, in an edition that sees stories as a way of making sense of the world. Barnes’ fiction contains more truth than journalism: as a novelist, he uses fiction to reflect the complexity of the world, whereas as a journalist, he would need to simplify it and make it understandable after just one reading. Readers find new levels of “reality” with each reading of his novels, which dig deep inside the depths of the human soul with lucidity, elegance and humour.