The Lincoln Highway
A Novel
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4.2 • 5.7K Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
More than ONE MILLION copies sold
A TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick
A New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Bill Gates and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year
“Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A classic that we will read for years to come.” —Jenna Bush Hager, Read with Jenna book club
“Fantastic. Set in 1954, Towles uses the story of two brothers to show that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope.” —Bill Gates
“A real joyride . . . elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.” —NPR
The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York.
Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles's third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes. “Once again, I was wowed by Towles’s writing—especially because The Lincoln Highway is so different from A Gentleman in Moscow in terms of setting, plot, and themes. Towles is not a one-trick pony. Like all the best storytellers, he has range. He takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men. He seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as an interstate highway. But, he suggests, when something (or someone) tries to steer us off course, it is possible to take the wheel.” – Bill Gates
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Amor Towles’ heartfelt coming-of-age story is a great reminder that the most rewarding life path often isn’t a straight one. After orphaned 18-year-old Emmett Watson is released from a juvenile detention facility in the 1950s, he heads home to the foreclosed family farm in Nebraska. Emmett hopes to load his little brother into his Studebaker and find a new life for them in Texas, but when two rambunctious former inmates show up, they throw a wrench in Emmett’s plans, launching him and his kid brother on a rollicking cross-country road trip that will change his life forever. Towles takes us on an unforgettable journey through America’s heartland as we watch four boys struggle to become the men they want to be. With his previous novels, A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility, Towles proved he’s a master of elegant historical fiction. This boisterous, touching novel is a joy to read—and suggests he’s got even more range than we thought.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Towles's magnificent comic road novel (after A Gentleman in Moscow) follows the rowdy escapades of four boys in the 1950s and doubles as an old-fashioned narrative about farms, families, and accidental friendships. In June 1954, 18-year-old Emmett Watson returns to his childhood farm in Morgen, Neb., from a juvenile detention camp. Emmett has been released early from his sentencing for fighting because his father has died and his homestead has been foreclosed. His precocious eight-year-old brother, Billy, greets him, anxious to light out for San Francisco in hopes of finding their mother, who abandoned them. Plans immediately go awry when two escaped inmates from Emmett's camp, Duchess and Woolly, appear in the Watsons' barn. Woolly says his grandfather has stashed $150,000 in the family's Adirondack Mountains cabin, which he offers to split evenly between the three older boys. But Duchess and Woolly take off with Emmett's Studebaker, leaving the brothers in pursuit as boxcar boys. On the long and winding railway journey, the brothers encounter characters like the scabrous Pastor John and an endearing WWII vet named Ulysses, and Billy's constant companion, a book titled Professor Abacus Abernathe's Compendium of Heroes, Adventures, and Other Intrepid Travelers, provides parallel story lines of epic events and heroic adventures. Woolly has a mind for stories, too, comparing his monotonous time in detention to that of Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo and hoping eventually to experience a "one-of-a-kind kind of day." Towles is a supreme storyteller, and this one-of-a-kind kind of novel isn't to be missed. Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the name of the Ulysses character.
Customer Reviews
The Lincoln Highway
I really liked the ending, but the adventure did not seem very realistic to me.
Favorite of the Year
The rich cast of characters on a landscape of story telling that had more on ramps than the Lincoln Highway and more turns than any reader could have hoped for in a novel. Superb
What a ride!
Many sub-stories within a supremely crafted tale. One of a kind surprises right and left with no shortage of adventure and wisdom - a genuine page turner!