Booker: a smutty anecdote about the winning novel

By Dilip -

'The event in question happened when visiting friends in Manchester last weekend. The Sense of an Ending had only been published officially on the preceding Thursday.. Shortly before lunch on Sunday, I went into Waterstones, hoping to browse through the first few pages and decide whether it was worth the investment... copies of the book had been placed on a small “New Releases” stand in front of the door. The term "New Releases" would turn out to be unfortunately prophetic.  On about the fourth or fifth page, after the epigraph but before the beginning of the first chapter, I came across what can only be described as a used - and evidently filled - prophylactic tucked neatly in-between the pages..'


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