-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
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.
2025 Booker Shortlist announced
...umber/4991/audition Audition by Katie Kitamura https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/22855/the-rest-of-our-lives The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/22852/the-land-in-winter The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller https://www.b...
-kim.kovacs
Booker Longlist announced!
How many of these have you read? Love Forms by Claire Adam The South by Tash Aw Universality by Natasha Brown One Boat by Jonathan Buckley Flashlight by Susan Choi The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai Audition by Katie Kitamura The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits The Land in Winter...
-kim.kovacs
"Notably nuanced….This controlled, quietly moving portrait of a life in decline coasts to a halt in an unexpected place." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Superb….What starts as an understated chronicle of wanderlust swells to something more powerful and permanent." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Well-crafted, introspective…an affecting, memorable read." —Booklist
"An incredibly written book about all the big things in life—brought into focus by simply paying close attention to the little things. An instant classic of that beloved genre, the great American road trip. What a remarkable achievement." —Isaac Fitzgerald, author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts
This information about The Rest of Our Lives was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Benjamin Markovits grew up in Texas, London and Berlin. He is the author of eleven novels, including Either Side of Winter, You Don't Have To Live Like This, and Christmas in Austin. He has published essays, stories, poetry and reviews on subjects ranging from the Romantics to American sports in the Guardian, Granta, The Paris Review and The New York Times, among others.
If you liked The Rest of Our Lives, try these:
by Ann Packer
Published 2026
The bestselling, beloved author returns with her first novel in over a decade, an intimate and profoundly moving look at a long marriage and the ways in which a startling request can change a couple's understanding of who they are, together and apart.
by Jess Walter
Published 2026
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins—and in the propulsive spirit of Charles Portis' True Grit—comes a hilarious, empathetic, and brilliantly provocative adventure through life in modern America, about a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.
by Matt Haig
Published 2019
A love story across the ages - and for the ages - about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
