The Rest of Our Lives

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.

'A perfect contemporary take on the American road-trip novel.' LUCY CALDWELL
'Pitch perfect in its faithful depiction of the small failings and misfortunes of a life.' JANE FEAVER
'Completely involving and so funny, wise and knowing.' CLARE CHAMBERS

A hugely emotive and quietly exhilarating novel about family, marriage and those moments which can define our lives.

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 driving her to Pittsburgh to start university, he remembers his pact.

He is also on the run from his own health issues, and the fact that he's been put on leave at work after students complained about the politics of his law class - something he hasn't yet told his wife.

So, after dropping Miriam off, he keeps driving, with the vague plan of visiting various people from his past - an old college friend, his ex-girlfriend, his brother, his son - on route, maybe, to his father's grave in California.