Booker Prize-winning author Julian Barnes has confirmed that his upcoming novel, Departure(s), will be his last book. Speaking ahead of his 80th birthday, Barnes said he feels he has “played all my tunes” and does not want to write books merely because publishers would accept them. He plans to continue writing in other forms, including journalism and reviews. Departure(s) is described as a hybrid of memoir, essay, and fiction, and revisits themes common in Barnes’s work—memory, love, friendship, ageing, and death—through a story involving two anonymised friends whose relationship ended. Barnes also discussed living with a rare blood cancer diagnosed six years ago, managed with daily oral chemotherapy, which he described as currently stable. notes key milestones in his career, including his breakthrough with Flaubert’s Parrot and his 2011 Booker win for The Sense of an Ending, as well as personal details including the death of his first wife and a recent remarriage.