Departures by Julian Barnes

Mar 21, 2026

Anna and Geoff discuss the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist, including Flashlight, The Correspondent and Audition.  Some of the other long-listed books feature writers as characters, which gets us talking about turn-offs in novels.

 

Our book of the week is DEPARTURE(S) by Julian Barnes. This is the final book by the Booker Prize-winning author. It is a novel about a couple who reunite later in life, with authobiographical elements from Barnes' own life, or it could be a memoir containing a short story.  There is also Proust, philosophy and some observations on memory. Described as 'elegant' (The Times) and 'unmistakably Barnes' (Observer), it got us thinking:

 

Where is the line between memoir and novel?

Is DEPARTURE(S) a love story?

Are the memory bits too Oliver Sacksy?

 

Coming up: SEASCRAPER by Benjamin Wood.

 

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Credits

 

Artwork: Sascha Wilkosz