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Departure(s)

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Departure(s)

By: Julian Barnes
Narrated by: Julian Barnes
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Departure(s) is a work of fiction – but that doesn't mean it's not true.

It 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 mattered enough to be remembered? It begins at the end of life – but it doesn't end there. Ultimately, it's about the only things that ever really mattered: how we find happiness in this life, and when it is time to say goodbye.

©2026 Julian Barnes (P)2026 Bolinda Publishing Aging & Longevity Aging Parents Family Life Genre Fiction Grief & Loss Literary Fiction Music Parenting & Families Personal Development Relationships Funny Witty Heartfelt
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It would be a pity to write a bad review of my favourite author's last book, but fortunately I don't have to. Departures is classic late Barnes: combining memoir, essay, and fiction on, as he pre-emptively mentions, some of his favourite tropes.
The audiobook is made more powerful by Barnes' own narration, which fits perfectly a book being narrated by ... author Julian Barnes. A perfect ending rounds off his great last words.

Great last words

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As a short book, I wanted to hear this read by the author and this offered the opportunity for that.

Read Julian Barnes before this and keep looking

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I absolutely loved listening to this beautifully written and read book. It's witty, erudite, poignant and utterly absorbing. I enjoyed it so much that I've ordered the hardback to savour at my leisure. One of the great books of the current millennium.

Outstanding

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Thank goodness this is read by it’s brilliant author - a classic Barnes tale at once comforting and unsettling. Departures is a rich, funny, leading and misleading journey, as all the best ones are. Its closing chapter might just be the best conjuring of the writer/reader dynamic and a tremendously fond farewell. I don’t know what I’ll do within him.

Perfect in every way

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Heightened by the fact that it is read by the author which seems particularly fitting in such an autobiographical book, on such an important theme. We have listened to his final written words spoken directly to us.

A pure pleasure

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