Changing My Mind

Bestselling author Julian Barnes illuminates the process of how minds are changed—about politics, books, words, memories, and more—in this wise and fascinating new book.

“We always believe that changing our mind is an improvement, bringing a greater truthfulness to our dealings with the world and other people. It puts an end to vacillation, uncertainty, weak-mindedness. It seems to make us stronger and more mature. Well, we would think that, wouldn't we?”

In this engaging and erudite essay, critically acclaimed writer Julian Barnes explores what is involved when we change our minds: about words, about politics, about books; about memories, age, and time.

Julian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and the Sunday Times (UK) bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story. He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays, and three books of nonfiction, including the Sunday Times (UK) number-one bestseller Levels of Life and the winner of the 2021 Yasnaya Polyana Prize in Russia, Nothing to Be Frightened Of. In 2017 he was awarded the Légion d’honneur.