Barnes' brief but deft novel The Sense of an Ending, currently shortlisted for England's Man Booker Prize, reads like a particularly thoughtful memoir. Tony Webster, a contented man settling comfortably into middle age, fondly carries his youth with him until a long-ago first love and an old childhood friend begin to haunt his present, forcing him to question the core of his character. Barnes' latest — a meditation on memory and aging — occasionally feels more like a series of wise, underline-worthy insights than a novel. But the many truths he highlights make it worthy of a careful read. B+