If mortality fascinates you, you might like to read her son's account of Susan Sontag's final illness and death [[Swimming in a Sea of Death by David Rieff]]. It's definitely no misery memoir. You might like to read Barnes's own non-fictional thoughts on death too: [[Nothing to be Frightened of by Julian Barnes|Nothing to be Frightened Of]]. If it's simpatico fiction you're after, Bookbag highly recommends [[On Borrowed Wings by Chandra Prasad]].