The man in the red cloak

Author's name: Julian Barnes Publisher: Al-Rafidain Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2025 Literary classification: Autobiography Book overview: "Art endures beyond personal desires, family pride, societal beliefs; art always guarantees time alongside it." This is what this book proves rightfully through the biography of Dr. Samuel Jan Botzi and a collection of autobiographies of his contemporaries, including artists, poets, writers, doctors, and even his family, whose lives and fates intertwine. Most of them were painted by the American artist John Singer Sargent, who painted the portrait of the "Man in the Red Coat." Julian Barnes in this book adopts the role of a skilled literary and artistic investigator. Over 388 pages, without chapters or divisions, he wrote a panoramic biography in a free and unpretentious style, as if Barnes recorded his thoughts directly while tracing the life of Dr. Samuel Botzi (the man in the red coat), the painting that caught his attention in 2015 at a gallery in London. The book begins with Botzi's visit to London, England, in June 1885, accompanied by two of his friends, and ends without much fuss with his death on June 13, 1918. The book discusses his fame, as he was a very prominent figure in France and the Western world. He was not famous just because he was famous, as is the case with many celebrities today, but because of his achievements in medicine, and because, as one of his admirers described him, "he was handsome to a disgusting degree." Julian Barnes also explores in this book the history of cultural exchange between London and Paris during the beautiful era, as if he wanted to demonstrate his rejection of Britain's exit from the European Union by showcasing this cultural exchange.