Julian Barnes is the author of thirteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending , which won the 2011 Booker Prize for Fiction, and Sunday Times bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story . He has also written three books of short stories, four collections of essays and four works of non-fiction, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Levels of Life and Nothing to Be Frightened Of . He was awarded the David Cohen Prize for lifetime contribution to literature in 2011, and the Légion d'Honneur in 2017.