The Rest of Our Lives - by Ben Markovits (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE

"[The Rest of Our Lives] feels like one of those books that, as you read, makes you think, 'Why aren't all novels like this?'" --The Critic

"Reading Ben Markovits's gentle, powerful, and funny novel, we are reminded that family love can ground us and keep us together." --The Times Literary Supplement

A triumphantly life-affirming road trip novel about 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.

Review Quotes

"[The Rest of Our Lives is] effortlessly warm, and it uses the smallest parts of human behavior to uphold bigger themes, like mortality, sickness, and love. The Rest of Our Lives is a novel of sincerity and precision. We found it difficult to put it down."
-- The Booker Prize 2025 judges: Ayòbámi Adébáyò, Chris Power, Kiley Reid, Roddy Doyle and Sarah Jessica Parker

"It would be impossible to read The Rest of Our Lives without pleasure. Fluently written and
effortlessly wise about families and middle age, it tells a compelling story that packs a serious emotional punch."
--George Cochrane, Telegraph

"[The Rest of Our Lives] is a book that has everything -- a clear line of plot, turbulently interesting narrator, themes both modern and timeless -- and feels like one of those books that, as you read, makes you think, "Why aren't all novels like this?"".
--John Self, Critic

"This compelling depiction of life at a crossroads is a male counterpart to Miranda July's All Fours."
--Marcel Theroux, Guardian

"A triumphant twist on the great American road novel...The Rest of Our Lives is another quiet triumph, an elegant, devastating book... Markovits has long been one of our most under-appreciated novelists; this is yet more proof that he deserves far greater recognition."
--Alex Preston, Guardian

"What makes The Rest of Our Lives so powerful is its restraint...the novel lingers in the mind, not for what it says outright, but for what it leaves unsaid."
--Ruby Eastwood, Irish Sunday Independent

"Markovits excels at family relationships: the things said and left unsaid.... Reading Ben Markovits's gentle, powerful and funny novel, we are reminded that family love can ground us and keep us together."
--Philip Womack, TLS

About the Author

Ben Markovits was born in Texas and grew up there and in London and Berlin. He studied at Yale University and the University of Oxford. After graduating, he became a professional basketball player in Landshut, Germany (where he played against a young Dirk Nowitzki). His eleven previous novels include Fathers and Daughters, You Don't Have to Live Like This, and 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.