“Deft and humanly-written, it made me ache in the best of ways long after I’d finished it.”—Roger Bennett, Men in Blazers

“By turns, wry, mournful and, oh-so-casually, astute….There’s a strain of Richard Ford and John Updike in Tom’s tone, which I mean as a high compliment….The canon of road trip stories in American literature is vast, even more so if you count other modes of transportation besides cars — like, say, rafts. But, the most memorable road trips, like The Rest of Our Lives, notice the easy-to-miss signposts — marking life forks in the road and looming mortality — that make the journey itself everything.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

"Very tender...articulate and engaging...grand in its modesty, plumbs the limits of the American dream, hinging smoothly on small interpersonal moments." —The New York Times

“Wry, poignant….captures something essential about what it means to be a disappointed and disappointing White man in modern-day America….Anyone willing to consider the thicket of fears, affections and recriminations that grows through the cracks of a long relationship will find in these pages an almost unbearable tenderness….captures the confessional cadences of regret and irony with such uncanny fidelity to actual speech that you’ll expect to find beer stains on these pages…irresistible.” —Washington Post

"Mr. Markovits is a prolific author...whose writing is restrained and plainspoken....The lack of adornments helps us see Tom laid bare. Stripped of his certainties, he achieves a raw kind of clarity." —Wall Street Journal

"Astute.” —Boston Globe

"[A] moving probe of life, love, family and marriage across years and miles." —NPR.org

"Expect insight, wit and surprises. It's a pleasure to be along for the ride." —Kim Hubbard, PEOPLE Magazine

“I was thoroughly, completely won over by this book, which is in the best tradition of [Richard Ford, John Updike, et al.].” —John Warner, Chicago Tribune

"The Rest of Our Lives woke me up and reminded me why I love reading and why I became a writer. There are books you admire and books you love but this one I admire and love in equal amounts and on top of that I am envious of it -- how can something this good be this much fun and pleasure to read?" —Charles Yu, National Book Award-winning author of Interior Chinatown

“The best empty nest novel.” —Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

“Thoughtful, interesting, funny….capturing the complexities…of midlife.…[The] sense of being both inside and outside of things and constantly transient shows up really beautifully…a really great offering....You will find so many resonant themes in this book." —Jen Hatmaker, author of Awake

“This is what they call a road trip novel, but I call it a Homeric odyssey. It’s delicious.” —Adriana Trigiani

"[The Rest of Our Lives is] effortlessly warm, and it uses the smallest parts of human behavior to uphold bigger themes, like mortality, sickness, and love. The Rest of Our Lives is a novel of sincerity and precision. We found it difficult to put it down."
—The Booker Prize 2025 judges: Ayòbámi Adébáyò, Chris Power, Kiley Reid, Roddy Doyle and Sarah Jessica Parker

“An incredibly written book about all the big things in life—brought into focus by simply paying close attention to the little things. An instant classic of that beloved genre, the great American road trip. What a remarkable achievement.”
—Isaac Fitzgerald, author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts

“Its astute and immediately re-readable observations makes this book hard to put down…keen and candid…The Rest of Our Lives takes a pointed look at the way we shape each other, both in interpersonal relationships and the community at large, and asks: When is it too late to live differently?”—San Francisco Chronicle

"It would be impossible to read The Rest of Our Lives without pleasure. Fluently written and effortlessly wise about families and middle age, it tells a compelling story that packs a serious emotional punch."
—George Cochrane, Telegraph

"[The Rest of Our Lives] is a book that has everything — a clear line of plot, turbulently interesting narrator, themes both modern and timeless — and feels like one of those books that, as you read, makes you think, "Why aren't all novels like this?"". 
—John Self, Critic

 "This compelling depiction of life at a crossroads is a male counterpart to Miranda July’s All Fours."
—Marcel Theroux, Guardian

"A triumphant twist on the great American road novel…The Rest of Our Lives is another quiet triumph, an elegant, devastating book… Markovits has long been one of our most under-appreciated novelists; this is yet more proof that he deserves far greater recognition."
—Alex Preston, Guardian

"What makes The Rest of Our Lives so powerful is its restraint…the novel lingers in the mind, not for what it says outright, but for what it leaves unsaid."
—Ruby Eastwood, Irish Sunday Independent

"Markovits excels at family relationships: the things said and left unsaid…. Reading Ben Markovits’s gentle, powerful and funny novel, we are reminded that family love can ground us and keep us together."
—Philip Womack, TLS

"Quiet and sweet and intimate." —Andrew Limbong, NPR

"A quiet, considered reflection on the complexities of life and love in middle age." —NPR

"A novel of earned wisdom...lively and engaging... pitch-perfect." —Nashville Scene

“Notably nuanced….This controlled, quietly moving portrait of a life in decline coasts to a halt in an unexpected place.”—Kirkus Reviews (STARRED)

“Superb….What starts as an understated chronicle of wanderlust swells to something more powerful and permanent.” —Publishers Weekly (STARRED)

“Well-crafted, introspective…an affecting, memorable read.” —Booklist