In her 11 October 2025 review for Scroll.in, Sayari Debnath argues that Ben Markovits’s Booker-shortlisted novel begins with an emotionally promising premise but settles into a dull, low-energy road narrative. Her central objection is Tom Layward: Debnath finds him so passive and committed to misery that it is hard to invest in his midlife crisis. That is one critic’s reading, not a settled verdict on the novel; the 2025 Booker judges described it as a relatable family saga, sickness narrative, basketball novel and story of farewell.
What is The Rest of Our Lives about?
Tom Layward is a middle-aged academic whose marriage, career and body are failing, according to the Booker Foundation’s description. His wife, Amy, had an affair twelve years earlier. The publisher says Tom had resolved to leave her when their youngest daughter turned eighteen. As he drives that daughter to Pittsburgh to begin university, he remembers the promise and keeps going west.
Debnath says Tom introduces the affair and the other participant early. In her reading, the journey is less a bold act of reinvention than the result of years of resentment and resignation, as the children approach independence and family life changes shape.
The Booker judges see several strands in the same journey: “The Rest of Our Lives is a basketball novel, a family saga, a book about sickness, and structurally, a road trip chronicle.” They also describe it as “a story about how we say goodbye.” Those descriptions point to a broader emotional and thematic ambition than a road-trip plot alone.
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Why does Debnath call it a dull journey?
A premise that loses momentum
Debnath finds the opening compelling: Tom’s marriage is rated “C minus,” and his delayed plan to leave gives the story an immediate tension. But she argues that the novel “gives up almost immediately.” For her, the subsequent journey lacks the energy its setup promises.
A protagonist she struggles to follow
Her main frustration is Tom’s passivity. Debnath says his boredom makes it difficult to engage with his midlife crisis, and that his conversations do not yield the insights into loneliness or masculinity she expected. She is not dismissing middle-aged men’s feelings or midlife crisis as worthy subjects; her criticism is that Tom seems committed to misery without doing anything compelling with it.
A comparison, not a claim of similarity
Debnath invokes Miranda July’s All Fours as a point of comparison: the apparent lunacy of that book’s middle-aged protagonist felt more convincingly rendered to her. The comparison clarifies her response to Tom’s characterization; it does not establish that the novels are otherwise alike.
Why did the Booker judges respond differently?
The judges’ published account presents the book as a combination of family story, sickness narrative, basketball novel and road chronicle, with a narrator they called “ridiculously relatable.” Their emphasis is on the journey’s emotional accumulation and its concern with how people say goodbye. Debnath, by contrast, focuses on whether Tom’s inertia and the book’s conversations make that journey involving.
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These are distinct critical judgments, not evidence of a broad consensus. A reader weighing them can ask whether the road trip’s low-key pace feels like an honest expression of middle age and family change, or whether Tom’s passivity drains the narrative of tension. Other useful points of comparison are how the book integrates illness and basketball with family life, and whether its farewell theme earns an emotional payoff.
What did Markovits say about the novel?
In the Booker Foundation’s 23 September 2025 shortlist announcement, Markovits said the book began with an idea for an opening line that he set aside, then returned to as his children grew older. He wanted to write about “a certain period of family life coming to an end.”
He also said he wrote about symptoms he had experienced that nobody could diagnose, describing them as a useful symbol of middle age and “the gradual decline that you can’t quite understand.” That is the author’s account of his inspiration; it does not mean the fictional illness is a diagnosis or that the novel is wholly autobiographical.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where does the novel sit in the 2025 Booker Prize?
The Rest of Our Lives was one of six books shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. David Szalay’s Flesh won the prize on 10 November 2025. The Booker Foundation described Markovits’s novel as his 11th novel for adults.
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Which edition does the publisher list?
Penguin Random House India lists paperback and hardback buying options. Its paperback listing gives ISBN 9780571388554, 256 pages and an October 2025 publication date. The listing displays an Amazon India option and an India MRP of ₹599; that is a regional listing, not a guarantee of current price, stock or availability elsewhere.
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