Every writer must say goodbye to their novel. Just as a painting must end at the edge of the canvas, so books are bound and the number of pages is limited. But how to finish a project? Both the literary and emotional implications of endings are considered in this paper: the end of a particular story – Fraxinet - is debated and decided upon, while an examination is made of the writing and editing process which produces the final 16,000 words of the novel. The paper asks whether the chosen ending answers the questions thrown up by the novel. But what are those questions? The intention of the novel must be examined, which leads to a discussion of the kind of novel Fraxinet is. Fraxinet turns out – under the microscope - not to follow the traditional ‘five act’ shape, but to have formed itself into a spiral. So just how do you exit a spiral? In the course of this dilemma, the authority of the author is questioned, and it becomes evident that the end of the novel must not only wrap up the many strands of the story, but also answer a central mystery – who, of all the characters, will turn out to be the narrator?