Julian Barnes Archives - TPR: The Public's Radio

NPR

Julian Barnes’ playful new book is also his ‘official departure’

by Heller McAlpin January 26, 2026January 26, 2026

Departure(s) explores several of Barnes’ lifelong obsessions — mortality, memory, and time. It’s slim but weighty, digressive yet incisive. Barnes, who just turned 80, says it will be his last.

Julian Barnes attends a screening of the film adaptation of his novel, The Sense of an Ending, in London on April 6, 2017. Barnes won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 for the novel.

NPR

Julian Barnes says he’s enjoying himself, but that ‘Departure(s)’ is his last book

by Terry Gross January 15, 2026January 15, 2026

Part memoir and part fiction, Barnes’ hybrid novel publishes the day after his 80th birthday. He’s been living with a rare form of blood cancer for six years.

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