The Rest of Our Lives

By Benjamin Markovits

Book Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

FINALIST FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE

"Feels less like reading a novel and more like sitting in a car beside a dear friend as he navigates the road up ahead. A profoundly moving experience." --Ann Patchett

"Deeply human...a beautifully quiet and devastating book." --Sarah Jessica Parker

A triumphantly life-affirming road trip novel about marriage, middle-age, and a man at a crossroads in his life.

When Tom Layward's wife had an affair twelve years ago, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest child left the nest. Now, while driving his college-bound daughter to Pittsburgh, he remembers his promise to himself. He is also on the run from his own health issues and a forced leave from work.

So, rather than returning to his wife in Westchester, Tom keeps driving west, with the vague plan of visiting people from his past--an old college friend, his ex-girlfriend, his brother, his son--en route, maybe, to California. He's moving towards a future he hasn't even envisioned yet while he considers his past and the choices he's made that have brought him to this particular present. Pitch-perfect, tender, and keenly observed, The Rest of Our Lives is a story about what to do when the rest of your life is only just the beginning of your story.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1668231565
• ISBN13: 9781668231562
• Release Date: December 2025
• Publisher: S&s/Summit Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

No logical ending

HOW this novel was shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize is beyond me. I like books to have an ending, not just sort of STOP, which is what this did. I really wanted to like it as I am known for being a sucker for any sort of "journey" or "road trip" books. Give me Roland Merullo's "Breakfast With Buddha" series, or many books by William Least-Heat Moon, or my newest favorite, Alexandra Sokoloff's first book in her new series, "The Grapevine" and I am hooked. I wanted some resolution to the numerous relationships mentioned in this book. Nope. At least we find out what his medical condition is which has been troubling him, but it sort of just ends there as well. Very disappointing!