The Rest of Our Lives Audiobook By Ben Markovits cover art

The Rest of Our Lives

A Novel

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The Rest of Our Lives

By: Ben Markovits
Narrated by: Eric Meyers
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“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. Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Marriage

Critic reviews

"Eric Meyers portrays Tom Layward, who drops his daughter off at college in Pittsburgh and immediately indulges in a midlife crisis in the form of a spontaneous road trip. When Tom’s wife had an affair 12 years earlier, he promised himself to cut ties only after their youngest child left home, and Meyers depicts Tom’s repressed frustration as he finally breaks loose. With an ambiguous plan to eventually reach his son in LA, Tom connects with old acquaintances as well as strangers, each voiced by Meyers with a subtle shift in tone and pace. Tom is blasé about his health situation and is less concerned than everyone around him, including his confused and angry wife back home."
All stars
Most relevant
Beautifull prose and very well narrated. Markovits offers a very candid view of longstanding marriage, marital burnout, male parenthood, reinventing the relevance of a longstanding marriage after the children leave for college, infidelity, and all the adjustments life demand. I will not give a spoiler of the the book's ending which gives context and closure to the whole story and is described with sublime understatement.

Beautiful prose, can't wait for another book by Ben Markovits

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I thought the story would get to a point where something was resolved in this man’s life. The only thing concrete that happened is getting his health problem diagnosed. It must be more esoteric than I am able to grasp. But the book had very little meaning and just left me feeling depressed.

So depressing

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Yes, it’s kind of true that this is the male equivalent of All Fours. But it’s far less slimy, and the man is not as self-centered as the main character of that book.

Midlife crisis

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When it was over I thought “Is that all there is?” Unsatisfying conclusion to the story.

He liked basketball.

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I enjoyed the book until the end. it ended abruptly. Perhaps a second book could tell more of their story.

Great story

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