From the back cover (which is well-written, for once):

Arthur and George grow up worlds apart in late nineteenth-century Britain: Arthur in shabby-genteel Edinburgh; George in the vicarage of a small Staffordshire village. Arthur becomes a doctor, then a writer: George a solicitor in Birmingham. Arthur is to become one of the most famous men of his age, while George remains in hard-working obscurity.

Arthur is a famous Arthur whom you will certainly recognise after a while; you will never have heard of George before. (By the way, I really liked the way Arthur’s identity was slowly revealed, but most reviews sadly reveal it straight away. Luckily this is not essential for enjoying the book.)

The two men are very different. Energetic, confident, imaginative, always-active Arthur marries, has a kind of a love affair, and rises through society. Shy, impassive George has no friends and no wife, but he does have an unshakeable belief in reason and in the legal system, and he proudly works on a book titled “Railway Law for the ‘Man in the Train’: Chiefly Intended as a Guide for the Travelling Public on All Points Likely to Arise in Connection with the Railways”.

Their two lives run their separate courses, until after many years they intersect – for a relatively minor event in Arthur’s life, yet life-changing for George. That central event is a criminal trial for a vicious crime, where circumstantial evidence and subjective interpretations of one man’s looks and behavior are all that determine his innocence or guilt. The book is fictional, but the trial was real, and even led to important changes in the British judicial system.

The trial, as well as other, minor events, are used to convey the somewhat too obvious message of the book (from the back cover again):

… a profound and moving meditation on the fateful differences between what we believe, what we know and what we can prove.

Personally I found this message a bit too heavy-handed, and likewise the discussion of racism and what it means to be English. But it does not take up too much space or attention.

Barnes has chosen an interesting structure for the book. The two lives are initially told as parallel stories, through alternating short sections that show how the two men grow up. Then we follow George for an intense and long chapter that brings us to the main event. After that attention turns to Arthur to trace his way to the point where the two meet. The middle section – where Arthur’s story is left aside for a long stretch – felt a bit long, and abandoning one of the lives for so long felt uncomfortable.

Despite following two lives for many decades, one of them a very active life, the book is not action-filled. Especially the first half proceeds at a slow pace, and it remains quiet and restrained even when it is at its most suspenseful. (How very English that is, and how suitable for a book that explores Englishness!) While some reviewers found the book too slow, even sluggish, I wasn’t bothered by this at all. The events are interesting, but ultimately secondary to the men themselves – their characters carry the whole story.

The slow pace also left me more time to enjoy the absorbing, intelligent, beautiful prose. Many sentences were worth savouring one by one. They all flow so naturally, yet stand out and almost ask to be read aloud, or at least re-read a few times.

I really, really enjoyed this book – it was a pleasure to read. I was sorry when it ended, and even sorrier to learn that Barnes’ other books are nothing like this one. I do hope he writes more like this in the future.

For other reviews that are more than just plot synopsis, try Salon, Gothamist (both of which contain significant spoilers) or Agony Column. (And what the heck is a book review doing in an Agony Column, anyway?)

Amazon UK; Amazon US.