Short listed for the 2025 Man Booker Award, The Rest of Our Lives follows Tom Layward on a cross country road trip. After dropping off his youngest child for her first year at Carnegie Mellon, he continues driving west instead of returning home to his wife in Westchester, New York. Tom’s marriage is falling apart, he has been asked to take a leave of absence from the law school he teaches at, and he has mysterious, serious health issues. The spontaneous ride trip that ultimately ends visiting his son in Los Angeles, helps Tom analyze where his life is headed.

Although Tom is a flawed character, I liked The Rest of Our Lives. I found the characters portrayed realistically and Tom’s problems seemed authentic. If you need closure at the end of a novel, I can’t recommend The Rest of Our Lives. The reader is left wondering what will happen next to Tom and his family.