​Elizabeth Finch is a professor, Neil is a failed actor and a student in her Culture and Civilization course. Neil is charmed by the stoic, withdrawn and inspirational woman, and her passion for thinking resonates with him long after he loses her forever.

Elizabeth Finch is a classic "barnes-style-novel" with all that goes with it and what readers appreciate most about the works of Julian Barnes. It combines a story line about platonic, intellectual, but intense love with an essay part. This time, the essay is perhaps even deeper and more radical than in his previous works.

In the essey, author considers Christianity, parallel history and the fragmentation of the contemporary world as part of a study of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate. His tribute to philosophy is reasonable - it has a healing effect on the uncertainty of the present. Due to its relatively small size, the book has an iceberg effect - the most important thing happens only after reading it - in the reader's head.