Departure(s) is a work of fiction – but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

‘An elegant, thoughtful final book’ THE TIMES
‘His “last book” … proves one of his best’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Metafictional, moving, unmistakably Barnes’ OBSERVER

Departure(s) 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.

‘One of our finest writers… Departure(s) can only polish his reputation’ DAILY EXPRESS

‘He has given his career a triumphant ending’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Moving, engaging… explores the effects of time on love’ INDEPENDENT

Family is everything, even when it falls apart.
Discover the Sunday Times bestselling new novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author.

‘Sharp, absorbing, emotionally intelligent’ – Guardian

‘Rachel Joyce is a masterful storyteller.‘ – Sarah Winman, author of Still Life
‘The perfect holiday read’ – The Times

‘A triumph of insight and empathy!’ – Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures
‘Deeply satisfying’ – Observer

‘Joyce is a fearless explorer of emotional landscape.’ – Sunday Times

‘If only there were more novelists like Rachel Joyce’ – Telegraph

There is a heatwave across Europe.

Goose and his three sisters gather at the family’s house by Lake Orta in Piedmont, Italy. Their father, a famous artist, has recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his masterpiece. Now he is dead and there is no sign of a painting.

Although the siblings have always been close, as they search for answers over that summer, the things they learn – about themselves, their father and their new stepmother – will drive them apart before they can come to any kind of understanding of what their father’s legacy truly is.

Extraordinarily compelling, at heart this is a novel about sibling relationships and those hairline cracks that can appear within a family: what what happens when they splinter, and what it would take to mend them.

’The renowned artist – the emotionally starved children – what an inspired subject! Joyce writes with her trademark vitality and compassion and there is such colour here. So much at stake. I couldn’t put it down.’ – Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky and Mr Mac and Me

‘Lyrical, shrewd and, ultimately, as indecently satisfying as a four course Italian lunch. My life is a little emptier now it’s over.’ – Patrick Gale, author of A Place Called Winter
‘Sparkling and addictive … Rachel Joyce is so incredibly good and wise on families and siblings. I couldn’t love it more.’ – Harriet Evans, author of The Garden of Lost and Found

Discover the word-of-mouth bestselling phenomenon that thousands of readers are calling their favourite book of the year!

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD WORDLWIDE
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK

‘A warm, funny gem of a novel’
LAURA HACKETT, THE TIMES

‘Masterful . . . I was delighted and moved’
NEW YORK TIMES

‘I can’t praise it enough. It’s an absolute triumph’
CLARE CHAMBERS

‘What a novel! Tender, dry, sharp…devastating, but still feel good.’
PANDORA SYKES

‘Tremendous’
FREDRIK BACKMAN

‘Shows us what a glorious thing growing older can be’
FLORENCE KNAPP

‘The year’s breakout novel no one saw coming’
WALL STREET JOURNAL

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Every morning, Sybil Van Antwerp sits down to write letters – to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to attend a class she desperately wants to take, to her favourite authors to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Because at seventy-three, Sybil has used her correspondence – witty and wise – to make sense of the world. But beyond the page, she has spent the last thirty years keeping the people who love her at arms’ length… Until letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life.

Now, Sybil must send the letter she has been writing for all these years – and find forgiveness within herself in order to move on.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might not be an extraordinary one, but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.