Exit Lines

“Biting, sly, sardonic. . . Exit Lines is shot through with pathos, poignancy and insights about aging on virtually every page.” —The Gazette

A subversive and deeply compassionate story of reaching for autonomy at the end of life, by the celebrated author of Gaining Ground.

The ageing and deep-pocketed residents of the Idyll Inn all have one thing in common: they’ve been left to live out the rest of their days at the pastel-hued “retirement lodge,” and no one is pleased. There’s Sylvia, whose steely backbone inspires fear in the Inn’s nosy administrators. Her icy solitude is soon thawed by an unexpected trio: George, Greta, and Ruth. Once a shoe store owner who had an affair with Greta—his former clerk—George is now wheelchair-bound and entirely unfiltered. Greta never recovered from becoming a widow as a young immigrant, and seeing George again evokes memories of their complicated romance. Ruth, also widowed, cheerfully reads morbid news aloud to her new friends, all while her own despondency deepens.

As months pass, they drink too much, find new ways to defy authority, and mock the Inn’s infantilizing extracurricular activities. Little do Ruth’s companions know, they are about to be enlisted in a shocking task for which she needs their discretion—and their complicity.

In her wry, unflinching style, Booker-longlisted author Joan Barfoot enchants with personalities as tender, angry, and flawed as they are human. Poignant yet bold, Exit Lines asks whether longing has an expiry date and what it might look like to live and die with dignity.