Tag Archives: Peter Chappell

Departure(s) by Julian Barnes is the Booker Prize-winning author’s final novel, published earlier this year on his 80th birthday. I included it in my list of Booker Prize predictions last month, although it is also a hybrid memoir which details Barnes’ diagnosis of “incurable but manageable” blood cancer in early 2020. The novel side of the book tells the story of Stephen and Jean who fall in love when they are at university with Barnes and then reconnect after 40 years apart. Departure(s) returns to familiar themes of mortality and ageing which Barnes has explored in many other books over the years, but this time it feels like the personal reality is felt much more keenly. The musings on Proust are a bit tedious, and I think The Sense of an Ending still stands out as his best recent work. Continue reading →