Meet Tony Webster, a self proclaimed ordinary Englishman who offers readers sensible observations on the nature of life and its trials: “the reward of merit is not life’s business” and “time doesn’t act as a fixative, rather as a solvent.” Tony is a likable realist, who for all appearances is a sound and balanced man. When Tony is bequeathed a diary in the possession of a girlfriend from years ago, he is introduced to an impenetrably dense field of mystery that encompasses their shared past. Recognizing that history and memory don’t always share the same path, Tony begins looking more closely at his life. He asks himself one of the most difficult questions any one of us could ask ourselves: What does it mean to want to be someone bigger and better than who we are or who we could ever be? The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes, moves fast and has a gripping plot, but at its heart it is a calm and mesmerizing book, rich with psychology and philosophy.