How long is it?
307 pages in the Bloomsbury 2010 hardcover edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Literary fiction
The Finkler Question
Highly regardedBooker Prize, 2010Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 58 / 100High
- Length
- 307 pagesBloomsbury · 2010
- Reading time
- 6 h 15 minat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Measured
- Emotional intensity
- 4 / 5
About 6 h 15 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 13 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
Julian Treslove, a former BBC producer working as a celebrity lookalike in contemporary London, envies the Jewish identity of his schoolfriend Sam Finkler. After dinner with Finkler and their former teacher, Libor Sevcik, both recently widowed, Treslove is mugged and becomes convinced his attacker mistook him for a Jew. His attempts to acquire the belonging he imagines his friends possess unfold alongside their arguments about Israel and their struggles with loss.
Reader notes
Funny and mournful, the literary comedy spends long stretches inside conversations and private thoughts, returning repeatedly to Jewish identity, antisemitism and grief. The pace is discursive, and its troubled love lives include explicitly described sex.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Dense · Dialogue-driven · Essayistic · Witty
- Tone
- Cerebral · Humorous · Melancholic · Satirical
- Structure
- Linear
- Driven by
- Character · Ideas · Relationships
- Point of view
- Multiple viewpoints · Third person, omniscient
- Setting
- London
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 4 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Belonging
- Friendship
- Grief
- Identity
- Love
- Religion and faith
Content notes
- Violence
- Mild
- Sexual content
- Strong
- Swearing
- Mild
- Substance use
- None
- Abuse
- None
- Self-harm or suicide
- Mild
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- Booker Prize, 2010
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Bloomsbury · 2010 · Hardcover. ISBN 9781408808870.
How long does it take to read The Finkler Question?
About 6 hours 15 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 307-page Bloomsbury edition. Dense books can take longer.
If you liked this
Edition and details
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury
- Publication year
- 2010
- Format
- Hardcover
- Pages
- 307
- ISBN
- 9781408808870
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 2010
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Literary fiction · Contemporary literary · Psychological fiction · Comedy · Satire
- Editions
- 1
- Languages
- 1 (English)
The catalog does not yet include a matching edition. Details may differ between editions.