“You’ve never read a road trip novel like Ailsa McFarlane’s Highway Blue.”—Entertainment Weekly
A hypnotic debut of broken love on the run, from a blazingly original young writer
“In front of me the long length of the road wound out, wound out and wound on under hot sky. And I drove . . .”
In the lonely town of San Padua, Anne Marie can never get the sound of the ocean out of her head. And it’s here—dog-walking by day, working bars by night—where she tries to forget about her ex-husband, Cal: both their brief marriage and their long estrangement.
When Cal shows up on Anne Marie’s doorstep one day, clearly in trouble, she reluctantly agrees to a drink. But later that night a gun goes off in a violent accident and the young couple are forced to hit the open road together in escape.
Crammed in a beat-up car with their broken past, so begins a journey across a vast, mythical American landscape, through the dark seams of the country, toward a city that may or may not represent salvation.
Highway Blue is a story of being lost and found—and of love, in all its forms. Written in spare, shimmering prose, it introduces the arrival of an electrifyingly singular new voice.
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"The richness and pathos of the ordinary is heightened by the private mysteries of McFarlane’s innocent fugitives as they run from both the law and themselves. It is a journey filled with unexpected kindnesses and the illuminating effect of transformation. I so admire it."
— Susanna Moore, author of In the Cut and Miss Aluminum
A beautiful, sun-drenched road story . . . a novel that’s in love with the idea of America, both contemporary in its concerns and deeply nostalgic, full of Edward Hopper diners and faded blue jeans.
— The Guardian“This story is gripping from start to finish, ripe with an ever-present sense of mystery and dripping with the boldness of youth.
— BooklistA road novel, a love story, a coming-of-age tale, but with sentences so sharply wrought, characters so achingly precise, that it feels new and fresh and utterly alive.
— Lynn Steger Strong, author of WantGripping, yet thought-provoking—a poignant comment on the modern condition . . . In her sparse prose [McFarlane] deftly pulls the strings of the cinematic plot. . . . [The story] should resonate so sharply after the year we’ve had.
— StylistThis book combines the razor-sharp truth-telling of Ottessa Moshfegh with the troubled heart of Raymond Carver. I’ve never read anything quite like it.
— Emma Copley Eisenberg, author of The Third Rainbow GirlHypnotic, stylish, and cinematic, Highway Blue holds you captive, like a blues song or incantation.
— Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum RoadAn undeniably talented writer.
— Kirkus ReviewsThis novel will take you down darkened alleyways and along sweltering open highways. I loved this book—dark, glimmering, journeying deep into modern America on a knife edge between love and dependence.
— Rosie Price, author of What Red WasBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!