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After Oxford, Julian Barnes spent three years as a lexicographer on the supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, and in the 1980s he wrote four crime novels as Dan Kavanagh, a pseudonym that let him indulge what he called “fantasies of violence”. In Flaubert's Parrot (1984) a retired doctor goes looking for the stuffed parrot Flaubert kept on his desk while writing “A Simple Heart”, and finds more than one candidate. Barnes was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times before The Sense of an Ending won in 2011. His wife, the literary agent Pat Kavanagh, died in October 2008; Levels of Life (2013) is partly about that grief. In January 2026 he published Departure(s) and wrote that it would definitely be his last book. The ten writers below share his ground: memory that cannot be trusted, love examined after the fact, and the question of how much of any life can be known.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Literary fiction · Memory and grief · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Julian Barnes, start with Ford Madox Ford, whose The Good Soldier (1915) is the classic novel of a narrator misreading his own marriage, the territory of The Sense of an Ending. For quiet English lives looked back on, read Kazuo Ishiguro; for the novelist who beat Flaubert's Parrot to the 1984 Booker, read Anita Brookner. The list also includes Barnes's old friend Martin Amis, whose style argues with his.
10 authors like Julian Barnes
Where to start if you loved Julian Barnes
If you loved The Sense of an Ending, read Ford Madox Ford.
The Good Soldier: a narrator discovering, too late, what his marriage really was.
If you loved Flaubert's Parrot, read Flaubert.
Start with “A Simple Heart” in Three Tales, the story with the parrot, then Madame Bovary.
If you loved Levels of Life, read Joan Didion.
The Year of Magical Thinking: another writer's year after a husband's death.
If you loved The Noise of Time, read Milan Kundera.
The Joke: a life bent out of shape by a communist state.
If you want more Barnes, start with The Sense of an Ending.
The Sense of an Ending (2011) first, then Flaubert's Parrot (1984) for his playfulness, and Departure(s) (2026), which he has called his last book.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Julian Barnes
Who writes like Julian Barnes?
Ford Madox Ford and Kazuo Ishiguro for narrators who misread their own past, Anita Brookner and Penelope Fitzgerald for short, exact English novels, and Milan Kundera for fiction that stops to think aloud.
What should I read after The Sense of an Ending?
Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier (1915), Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day (1989) and Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach (2007), all novels in which a past is reread and found to be different.
Does Julian Barnes have a new book?
Yes. Departure(s), a mix of memoir, essay and fiction, was published in January 2026, and Barnes writes that it will definitely be his last book. It followed the essay collection Changing My Mind in 2025.
Did Julian Barnes win the Booker Prize?
Yes, in 2011 for The Sense of an Ending, after being shortlisted for Flaubert's Parrot (1984), England, England (1998) and Arthur & George (2005).
Which Julian Barnes book should I read first?
The Sense of an Ending (2011), a short novel that shows his method at its clearest. For the playful, essayistic Barnes, try Flaubert's Parrot (1984).
Is Julian Barnes like Ian McEwan?
They are contemporaries who both write about memory, guilt and a single decisive moment in youth. McEwan builds suspense and drama; Barnes is quieter, more essayistic and more interested in how memory distorts.
Sources
- Julian Barnes — Wikipedia
- Julian Barnes' playful new book is also his 'official departure' — NPR via KPBS
- The Sense of an Ending: History, Narrative and Truth — LitCharts
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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