Departure(s)
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Publishing:22nd Jan '26
£17.09 was £18.99
This title is due to be published on 22nd January, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback - Signed Edition£17.09was £18.99(9781787335721-S)
Departure(s) is a work of fiction – but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
It is the story of a man called Stephen and a woman called Jean, who fall in love when they are young and again when they are old. It is the story of an elderly Jack Russell called Jimmy, enviably oblivious to his own mortality.
It is also the story of how the body fails us, whether through age, illness, accident or intent. And it is the story of how experiences fade into anecdotes, and then into memory. Does it matter if what we remember really happened? Or does it just matter that it mattered enough to be remembered?
It begins at the end of life – but it doesn’t end there. Ultimately, it’s about the only things that ever really mattered: how we find happiness in this life, and when it is time to say goodbye.
'Metafictional, moving, unmistakably Barnes' OBSERVER
'There's no one quite like Julian Barnes' GUARDIAN
'Everything Julian Barnes writes changes everything' FRANCES WILSON, author of Electric Spark
A moving, engaging book… his [Barnes’s] humorous narrative explores the effect of time on love… a rather lovely swansong * Independent *
[An] elegant, thoughtful final book, which considers old age, fate and happiness. It’s an arch blend of memoir and make-believe — and rather touching * The Times, *Books to Look Out For 2026* *
His [Barnes’s] “last book”… proves one of his best * Daily Telegraph, *Books to Look Out For 2026* *
Metafictional, moving, unmistakably Barnes * Observer, *Books to Look Out For 2026* *
A richly layered autofiction… Artfully constructed to seem casually conversational, it braids erudite essayism and fiction, and every line is turned inside out with qualifications * Observer *
At a little over 150 pages, Departure(s) is brief but it is not slight and, each time I read it, I thought about it for days afterwards… If this is his [Barnes’s] last book, he has given his career a triumphant ending * Financial Times *
Disparate elements are bound together by the skilful management of theme and tone… [Departure(s)] is at once confidently authoritative and tentatively questioning. Barnes assumes a personal relation with his readers, built on the kind of intimacy that cancer’s company doesn’t provide * Times Literary Supplement *
Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes approaches his 80th birthday this month secure in his position as one of our finest writers. And Departure(s) can only polish his reputation * Daily Express and Mirror *
ISBN: 9781787335721
Dimensions: 224mm x 144mm x 21mm
Weight: 284g
176 pages