This book was a dissapointment after reading "Flaubert's Parrot".
The concept behind the structure of the book is very interesting and daring. Unfortunately, the result is in my opinion very uneven in quality. Quite often I had to force myself to read on.

The first story ("The Stowaway") was hilarious (if irreverent) and I enjoyed "Shipwreck","Project Arrarat" and, in particular, Barnes' meditation on love ("Parenthesis"). ( )

Writing a complete history of the world is a mere 10 and a half chapters would be a pretty difficult thing to do, and in essence, Barnes doesn't really even try to do this in this book. it really is nothing more than a catchy title. But the novel is an interesting examination of the role love and religion have played in shaping the world as we know it, using Noah's Ark as it's central theme. And I must say, I was thoroughly amused at how often, and how well Barnes repeatedly weaved the character of the wood worm into the narration. ( )

Ambitious novel without a typical novel structure, the longform essay as novel. Continued themes of truth, love and what history does to them. Ennui of Barnes’s previous books now actively shipwrecked. Barnes links historical oddities from Noah's Ark to the astronaut's Arafat Project identifying the oddities of human perception. Graham Greene better at 'the human factor' and there is a little too much author, not enough work, in places. Strong JB theme of the fabulist nature of historical accounts. ( )

A deep rumination on woodworms on the Arc and other related maritime excursions with love and a rather loveless afterlife for spice. Somewhere between nightmare and dream is the strange heart of this biblical group of salted fantasies. ( )

La historia del mundo que nos cuenta Julian Barnes comienza en el arca de Noé y termina en el Paraíso, y entretanto la cruzan navíos diversos: la balsa de la Medusa, que inspira la célebre pintura de Géricault; el Saint Louis, un barco de «condenados» que tras zarpar rumbo a La Habana con 937 judíos alemanes expulsados de cárceles y campos de concentración, recorrió medio mundo sin que ningún país aceptara su cargamento, por lo que tuvo que poner rumbo a Alemania; la frágil barca en la que se hace a la mar una australiana desesperada y quizá loca, convencida de que el mundo ha sido arrasado por la guerra atómica; y hasta la nave espacial de un astronauta que encuentra a Dios en los espacios, nunca mejor dicho que cada uno tiene el Dios que se merece y acaba «redescubriendo» el arca de Noé en el monte Ararat, en uno de los irónicos equívocos con que Barnes obsequia a sus lectores.