A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters

Author: Julian Barnes

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) | Historical fiction | Fiction: special features

Published on 8^th January 2026 by Vintage Publishing (Vintage Classics) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 320 pages
198mm x 130mm x 26mm | 286g

History isn't what happened. History is just what historians tell us.

From the Titanic to the Amazon, the raft of the Medusa to an ecclesiastical court in medieval France where a bizarre case is about to begin, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters presents a surprising, subversive, fictional history of earth told from several kaleidoscopic perspectives. Ambitious yet accessible, witty and playfully serious, this is no ordinary history, but something stranger: a challenge and a delight for the reader's imagination. 'Funny, ironic, erudite, surprising, and not afraid to take a dive overboard into the depths of sorrow and loss’ Nadime Gordimer