Julian Barnes is the author of several books of stories, essays, a translation of Alphonse Daudet’s In the Land of Pain, and numerous novels, including the 2011 Man Booker Prize winning novel The Sense of an Ending and the stunning The Only Story. Other publications include Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art and The Man in the Red Coat. His recent book Departure(s) was published in January 2026 and is about looking back, fracking the future, and coming to the end of life.