Show Notes
In this episode of Lit with Charles, I sit down with Benjamin Markovits to discuss his latest novel, The Rest of Our Lives. This beautifully reflective book follows Tom, a middle-aged father who, after dropping his youngest daughter at college, keeps driving, embarking on an unplanned journey that forces him to confront the unresolved trauma of an affair, a failing marriage, and a mysterious health condition. Blending the themes of a road trip novel, midlife crisis, and personal reckoning, Markovits crafts a story that is much more than the sum of its parts—meditative, intimate, and profoundly moving. Markovits, a British-American novelist and former professional basketball player, has a long and acclaimed bibliography, including You Don’t Have to Live Like This, which won the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction in 2016. In this conversation, we explore his own transatlantic upbringing, how his writing is influenced by his experiences, and why midlife transitions make for such compelling literary themes. The Rest of Our Lives is set for release in the UK in late March, and I wholeheartedly recommend adding it to your reading list. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and follow me on Instagram (@litwithcharles) to keep the literary conversations going. Let’s get more people listening—and reading!
More from Lit with Charles
Religion, artificial intelligence and a particularly terrifying lunch date are on the menu this week. Liv has been reading Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, while Charles tackles Pope Leo XIV’s thoughts on AI and the relationship between humanity and technology.
Marguerite Duras and Philip K. Dick make for an unlikely pairing this week, as Charles and Liv compare notes on The Lover and A Scanner Darkly. Then, things get stranger with a trip through the extraordinary life of Victor Hugo – a man whose habits involved live bats, raw lobsters and some deeply questionable party tricks.
This week, Charles and Liv discuss Gisèle Pelicot’s harrowing memoir A Hymn to Life and Alan Bennett’s brilliantly subtle Talking Heads.
This week, Charles and Liv discuss Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House and Kamel Daoud’s controversial novel Houris, exploring the Algerian Civil War and the strange story surrounding the book.
This week, Charles and Liv discuss Ian Fleming’s For Your Eyes Only, Clarice Lispector’s strange and brilliant The Hour of the Star, and why some books are better read like poetry. They also uncover John Steinbeck’s unpublished werewolf novel and debate whether authors’ work should ever be published against their wishes. Plus, they answer a listener question: what would you change about contemporary book culture? From endless “best books” lists to the pressure to read 100 books a year, Charles and Liv have a few complaints.