Julian Barnes announces farewell

Departure(s), the latest book by English author Julian Barnes, is the 80-year-old writer's last book, he himself announced. If he goes back on his decision and does write another book, it will be titled 'I'm Sorry'.

Barnes was born in Leicester on January 19, 1946, but grew up in London. Both his parents were French teachers and he studied French literature at Oxford. He worked first as a lexicographer on a supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary and as a journalist.

Nationally and internationally, he broke through with Flaubert's Parrot (Flaubert's Parrot, 1984). Barnes won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 for The Sense of an Ending. Some of his other titles include Talking it Over (Triologue, 1992), The Only Story (The Only Story, 2018) and The Man in the Red Coat (The Man in the Red Coat, 2019). He has also written crime stories under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh. His books have been translated into 50 languages and more than 10 million copies of his books have crossed the counter.

In Departure(s), the award-winning author looks back, but also looks to the future and the end of a life. "A fictional story, but that doesn't mean it's not true," the author's website states.

"It's the story of a man named Stephen and a woman named Jean, who fall in love when they are young and fall in love once again when they are old. (...) It's also the story of how the body lets us down, whether through old age, illness, accident or on purpose. And it's the story of how experiences fade into anecdotes and then into memories."

"Does it matter if what we remember really happened? Or does it only matter that it was important enough to be remembered? (...) In the end, it's about the only things that really matter: how we find happiness in this life and when it's time to say goodbye."

"I feel like I've written the books I wanted to write," Julian Barnes tells De Standaard about his announced farewell to literature. "If you ever interview me about a next book, it will be called 'I'm sorry." "Do you know any interesting books by authors written after the age of 80?" is also how he explains his farewell in an interview with De Volkskrant.

After a 45-year writing career (his first novel Metroland was published in 1980), Departure(s) may be his last novel, but Barnes will not stop writing. He plans to write journalistic essays and reviews, something he did before venturing into novels.

Source: Julianbarnes.com

(MP/Illustration: picture alliance/dpa | Horst Galuschka)