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Life can change in an instant because of one small mistake. For Glen Bauer, all it takes is a quick jerk of the steering wheel, intended to scare a reckless driver. But the reckless driver is killed, and just like that, Glen’s placid suburban existence begins to unravel.
When Glen realizes no one else saw the accident, he impulsively lies about what happened–to the police, to his wife, even to his six-year-old daughter, Sara, who was in the backseat at the time of the crash. But a tenacious detective thinks Sara might have seen more than she knows, or more than her parents will let her tell. And when Glen tries to prevent the detective from interrogating Sara, he finds himself in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game that could end in a lawsuit or prison.
What he doesn’t see coming is the reaction of his wife, Liz–a panicked plan that threatens to tear their family apart in the name of saving it. But what if the accident wasn’t really Glen’s fault? What if someone else were to blame for the turn his life has taken? It’s a question Glen can’t let go of. And as he struggles to understand the extent of his own guilt, he finds himself on yet another collision course, different in kind but with the potential to be equally devastating.
“Long Drive Home is a book that once you pick up you won’t put down… Perfect distraction, perfect pace.”
The Daily Beast, “Top 5 Perfect Summer Reads”
“What results from Allison’s inquiries into one (Every)man’s guilty conscience is an engrossing little novel with the nagging yet improbable insistence of an anxious dream.”
New York Times Book Review
“Like a nightmare that gets scarier and scarier as the hyperrealistic details mount, Will Allison’s psychological thriller Long Drive Home can shake you up . . . But while wondering whether Glen will get arrested is what keeps you turning pages, Allison’s eye for the details of marriage and fatherhood, and his deconstruction of what can happen when a good guy makes one false move, are what will break your heart.”
O, The Oprah Magazine
“One lie leads to another lie that leads to a taut thriller that hits you right at home.”
Patrik Henry Bass, senior editor at Essence, names his top 5 summer reads on NPR’s The Takeaway
“This is a book willing to engage the big issues.”
The Rumpus
“A gripping morality tale that raises questions about race, conscience and the responsibilities of parenthood.””
People Magazine, “People Picks”
“A moment of pique has life-and-death consequences in this suspenseful, finely etched novel.”
Parade Magazine, “Parade Picks”
“While narrowly focusing his lens on the event and its consequences, Mr. Allison still manages to take in a panorama of human behavior. . . Mr. Allison’s gift is in making [his protagonist’s] lie — and each new one it inevitably spawns — understandable, showing how this story could be anyone’s.”
New York Times
“Allison focuses on the brutally quick unraveling of Glen’s peaceful existence, filling the reader with not only dread but also the desire to discover what terrible–or hopeful–development awaits on the next page.”
Entertainment Weekly
“Allison portrays Glen’s string of bad choices as an unrelenting whirlpool, sucking him down until he has nowhere to escape, as the reader wishes in vain that he would stop and think rationally before he compounds his mistakes.”
Booklist
“[A] tight drama, part psychological thriller, part tragedy . . . Allison’s effortless prose and playful genre mixing showcase a burgeoning talent.”
Publishers Weekly
“The writing is very strong, and it’s a lean, spare book, just over 200 pages, that manages to pack a real punch and forces the reader to wonder about all the little actions every day that may or may not have long-term consequences.”
Meg Mitchell Moore, author of Two Truths and a Lie
“In Long Drive Home, Will Allison displays a stunning understanding of the ways small unworthy acts can unravel us. This story of responsibility, regret, and one family’s response to a single dishonesty is a powerful tribute to the complexity of human interactions. You won’t soon forget either the chills or the compassion the book will evoke.”
Robin Black, author of If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This
“In Long Drive Home, Will Allison reminds us how risky life is, how one bad move, one swerve from the right path, might set in motion a series of events that can destroy what we love.”
Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of Mothers, Tell Your Daughters
“Will Allison’s Long Drive Home is a sneaky novel, and I mean this as highest praise. Just as the narrator’s misdeeds sneak into his conscience and then refuse to leave, so too will this marvelous novel’s wry voice and beautifully drawn characters burrow into your heart and mind. A harrowing, terrifically tense, unforgettable book.”
Brock Clarke, author of Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe?
“Long Drive Home examines, with haunting elegance, how quickly one bad decision can descend into calamity. The dread grows with every page-as does the horrifying realization that the narrator’s choices could be yours, and his tragedy could so easily be your own.”
Lauren Grodstein, author of Our Short History
“A lean masterwork of suspense, Long Drive Home is burnished, brilliant, and irresistibly alluring in its depiction of a man who, when beset by his greatest fears, finds only himself to blame.”
Bruce Machart, author of Men in the Making
“Will Allison is a natural storyteller. As he makes clear with his stunning second book, he also has a habit of writing poignant, compulsively readable novels. Long Drive Home is a gripping, elegant, morally complex, and vividly realized portrait of our time and place.”
Frederick Reiken, author of Day for Night
“In Long Drive Home a fatal car wreck sets off a series of moral crises in the lives of an ordinary suburban family. At stake: race, justice, a couple’s marriage, the future of their six-year-old daughter. Will Allison has written a wise and indelible domestic thriller, heart-quickening, heartbreaking-that rare thing: a genuine literary page-turner.”
Porter Shreve, author of The End of the Book
“Will Allison’s beautiful novel Long Drive Home is part detective story, part wrenching family drama. It will make you hold your children tighter and kiss your husband or wife longer, thinking of the simple pleasures of everyday life that can be so easily spirited away.”
Hannah Tinti, author of The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
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