Description
By (author) Markovits Benjamin
Short /annotation:
What”s left when your kids grow up and leave home? An unforgettable road trip of a novel about getting older, and the challenges and rewards of long-term marriage.
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”Moving, smart and life-affirming” OBSERVER
”Why aren”t all novels like this?” THE CRITIC
”A triumphant twist on the great American road novel” GUARDIAN
”So funny, wise and knowing” CLARE CHAMBERS
What”s left when your kids grow up and leave home?
When Tom Layward”s wife had an affair he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest daughter turned eighteen. Twelve years later, while taking her to Pittsburgh to start university, he remembers his pact, and keeps driving West.
An unforgettable road trip novel, The Rest of Our Lives beautifully explores the nuance and complications of a long term marriage.
An Observer ”Novel to look out for in 2025” and an FT ”Best Summer Read”
What readers are saying about The Rest of Our Lives:
”What a powerful tale; a really unexpected treasure.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
”Highly recommended if you want to read something real and something that will resonate.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
”The best novel I”ve read this year. Highly recommended.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
”I absolutely loved it – the perfect mix of funny, poignant and thought-provoking.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Biographical note:
Benjamin Markovits grew up in Texas, London and Berlin. His novels include Either Side of Winter, You don”t Have to Live Like This and, most recently, The Sidekick. He has published essays, stories, poetry and reviews in the Guardian, Granta, The Paris Review and The New York Times, among others. In 2013 Granta selected him as one of their Best of Young British Novelists and in 2015 he won the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He lives in London and teaches creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Promotional headline:
What”s left when your kids grow up and leave home? An unforgettable road trip of a novel about getting older, and the challenges and rewards of long-term marriage.
Review quote: previous edition:
Fluently written and effortlessly wise about families and middle age, it tells a compelling story that packs a serious emotional punch.
Review quote: previous edition:
Irresistible … a book that has everything – a clear line of plot, turbulently interesting narrator, themes both modern and timeless. One of those books that, as you read, makes you think,
“Why aren”t all novels like this?”
Review quote: previous edition:
One of the most astute novelists of modern America. The Rest of Our Lives is another quiet triumph, an elegant, devastating book.
Review quote: previous edition:
Excellent . . . this compelling depiction of life at a crossroads is a male counterpart to Miranda July”s All Fours.
Review quote: previous edition:
A compelling portrait of a professor driving across America in a bid to rediscover his freedom.
Review quote: previous edition:
What makes The Rest of Our Lives so
powerful is its restraint . . . As it moves toward its devastating close, the weight of what remains unspoken grows heavier, and avoidance hardens into permanence.
The novel lingers in the mind, not for what it says outright, but for what it leaves unsaid.
Review quote: previous edition:
Markovits excels at family relationships: the things said and left unsaid; the weight of experience that forms character; and the ways in which families love each other, even as their members find each other irritating [
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