Road novel Archives - A Life in Books

Cover image for The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits

The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits: A mid-life odyssey

28 March 2025 / 20 Comments

Almost three years ago I reviewed Benjamin Markovits’s The Sidekick, a surprising choice for me as there’s a good deal about basketball in it but I enjoyed it enough to accept the offer of a review copy of The Rest of Our Lives. Billed appealingly as a road novel, it follows fifty-five-year-old Tom Layward whose […]

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Highway Blue by Ailsa McFarlane: A startlingly good debut

I first noticed Ailsa McFarlane’s Highway Blue in The Observer’s ’10 Best Debuts of 2021’ feature at the beginning of the year. Inevitably, given my weakness for first novels, several titles expanded my TBR list but McFarlane’s is the first I’ve read. Highway Blue follows Anne Marie and her estranged husband Cal who are on