Julian Barnes will be eighty years old in January 2026. He knows that the longest time of his life is behind him, and he wants to keep control of how people will look at that life. When Julian Barnes learns that he has an illness that can be fatal for him, but does not have to be, it means that he has to put things in order. What counts in life, which phase of life was important, or is memory deceptive? He says goodbye by telling the beginning and the supposed end of this extraordinary writer's life - and a fictional story in which there is also a lot of Julian Barnes. A literary, honest balance, a look back and forward by Julian Barnes, the great English novelist, who may say goodbye to writing with this book. After all, you never know exactly when your life will end. Biography (Julian Barnes) Julian Barnes, born in 1946 in Leicester, England, worked as a lexicographer after studying modern languages, then as a journalist. Barnes, who has received numerous international literary prizes, has published an extensive narrative and essayistic oeuvre. Julian Barnes lives in London.