The Leisure Seeker

Now a major film starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, a novel "like life itself: joyous, painful, moving, tragic, mysterious, and not to be missed" (Booklist, starred review).

The Robinas have shared a wonderful life for more than sixty years. Now in their eighties, Ella suffers from cancer and John has Alzheimer's. Yearning for one last adventure, the self-proclaimed "down-on-their-luck geezers" kidnap themselves from the adult children and doctors who seem to run their lives and steal away from their home in suburban Detroit on a forbidden vacation of rediscovery.


With Ella as his vigilant copilot, John steers their '78 Leisure Seeker RV along the forgotten roads of Route 66 toward Disneyland in search of a past they're having a damned hard time remembering. Yet Ella is determined to prove that, when it comes to life, you can go back for seconds—even when everyone says you can't.


"Come to the end and you'll say, Oh my God." —Elmore Leonard, New York Times bestselling author of Get Shorty

"A sweet natured travelogue that's about the end of the road in more ways than one." —Bob Morris, author of Assisted Loving

"An affecting road novel. . . . Ella's wise, feisty voice turns what could be a sappy melodrama into an authentic and funny love story." —Publishers Weekly

"Both achingly sad and intensely romantic, this unforgettable story of a last honeymoon hooked me from the first page." —Marjorie Hart, author of the national bestseller Summer at Tiffany

"Zadoorian is true to these geezers. He draws them in their most honest light . . . I hoped for a book that would make me laugh during these tight times, and I was rewarded." —Los Angeles Times