In The Rest of Our Lives , Benjamin Markovits turns the well-worn road-trip trope into a meditation on male loneliness, aging, and the hollow hum of middle-class American life.

Shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize , the novel follows Tom Layward, a 55-year-old law professor whose marriage, career, and body are faltering. It is a trifecta of slow-motion collapse.

A familiar plotline

The novel opens with a confession, “When our son was twelve years old, my wife had an affair….” And, never entirely leaves that emotional terrain. As Tom drives his daughter Miriam to college in Pittsburgh, he recalls vow he made to himself long ago that once his daughter is grown, he will leave his wife, Amy.

But instead of returning home, Tom keeps driving westward, through the American landscape a

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