Departure(s)

The final book from the Booker Prize-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author

Departure(s) is a work of fiction – but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

'An elegant, thoughtful final book’ THE TIMES
‘His “last book” … proves one of his best’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Metafictional, moving, unmistakably Barnes' OBSERVER

Departure(s) 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

Product Details:

Format: Hardback

Published: 22nd Jan 2026 by Penguin Publishers.

ISBN: 9781787335721