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The Rest of Our Lives

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The Rest of Our Lives

By: Benjamin Markovits
Narrated by: Eric Meyers
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About this listen

A TLS, FINANCIAL TIMES AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Feels less like reading a novel and more like sitting in a car beside a dear friend . . . a profoundly moving experience' ANN PATCHETT
'Deeply human ... a beautifully quiet and devastating book' SARAH JESSICA PARKER
'Funny, wise and knowing' CLARE CHAMBERS

When Tom's wife had an affair, he resolved to leave her once their children had grown up. Twelve years later, after driving his daughter to university, he remembers his pact and keeps driving West to visit friends, family and an old girlfriend.

But he also has secrets of his own - trouble at work and health issues - and sometimes running away is the hardest thing to do.

©2025 Benjamin Markovits (P)2025 Faber & Faber Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Marriage Funny Heartfelt
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We join Tom on his version of a midlife crisis road trip, meeting friends and family whilst ruminating on whether to leave his (previously) Unfaithful wife and ominously rumbling ill-health. It's a meandering journey and you have to put up with a lot of stuff about American basketball at times, but the mostly first person narrative is warm and wise. Tom is aware of both his own and life's limitations, but has learned enough along the way to navigate towards something new, though he doesn't really know what that might be. The quality of the book is much enhanced by the narrator's clever and comforting delivery.

A journey worth taking

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Tom didn't leave his wife when she told him.that she'd had an affair but promised himself he would instead leave when the children were college aged. And now that time had arrived he had decisions to make. So this is a road trip, revisiting his past life, loves and friendships to help him decide what to do. Beautifully written and told by narrator Eric Meyers, for this reader the book, shortlisted for the Booker prize, was slow moving but totally absorbing. No big dramatic explosions but the slow, gentle unfolding of a life

"On a scale of 1 - 10, how was your day?"

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Beautiful view into the human condition. The mundanity, the beauty, the fragility. Also a good insight into how many Men genuinely see and get through life, which is a marvel to most women I have no doubt! A very touching book, with much that lingers to reflect on.

Very good

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I was very disappointed with this title. I can’t understand how it is on the shortlist of the Booker.

Nothing

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… a soap opera of a family’s lives without any plot. Narration overall was good apart from the female voices

Just a little dull…

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