If there’s one factor I’ve discovered from chatting with readers concerning the premise for my new novel, Catch You Later, it’s this: A fictional highway journey is the subsequent smartest thing to the true deal.
The moment I say the novel is about two greatest pals who work at a freeway journey cease, actually watching life go them by — till the second considered one of them impulsively agrees to be a buyer’s plus-one on his all-night drive to a vacation spot seashore marriage ceremony, taking off her apron and getting in his automobile proper then — I see eyes gentle up on the potentialities.
Sure, we sense hazard. We’ve been warned by no means to just accept rides from strangers. However who can resist the trace of journey? We’re drawn to comply with the character who’d discover herself able to say sure … a personality, maybe, who doesn’t have a lot to lose.
A personality whose closest good friend would possibly rightly surprise, when she doesn’t come again, whether or not she’s actually gone lacking in any respect, or just discovered the higher life she at all times dreamed was on the market — leaving her outdated one within the rearview mirror.
In crafting Catch You Later, I got here to understand the freeway as a robust metaphor. Typically it truly is extra concerning the journey than the vacation spot. Typically it’s the distinction between fortunately tagging alongside and being able to take our flip within the driver’s seat. Typically it’s the blind religion of seeing solely so far as our headlights within the fog.
And it is perhaps the sudden detour that makes the entire journey value taking.
As I ship Catch You Later down the highway to bookshelves in all places this fall, take into account including it to your record for a vicarious journey of your individual — together with these different transportive novels about bonding on the open highway. Buckling in at house is an excellent method to really feel the wind in your hair with not one of the frustration of site visitors.
The Principally True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley
I used to be equally intrigued and charmed by Colleen Oakley’s titular characters. Louise is a strong-willed octogenarian who has taken a fall, prompting her kids to insist on hiring what she disdainfully calls a “live-in nanny.” Enter school dropout Tanner, who’s determined for a spot to cover from her personal disappointments and errors. How the pair finally ends up making their getaway collectively in Louise’s outdated automobile is sort of the satisfying trip, informed with wit and charm.
Allie and Bea by Catherine Ryan Hyde
That is one other novel about an unlikely pair of characters making a big effect on one another’s lives after they want it most. On this case, a spoiled teenager and a grieving widow each discover themselves homeless beneath hopeless circumstances past their management. However considered one of them has a van. And the opposite has a plan for making their manner up the Pacific Coast.
I Thought You Stated This Would Work by Ann Garvin
Two greatest pals have had a falling out that’s left them estranged for therefore lengthy they determine possibly it’s for the most effective — till a vital particular person to them each is dying. And wishes them to crew up for a teensy favor that occurs to contain a cross-country highway journey. The result’s by (literal) turns laugh-out-loud humorous and grab-the-tissues transferring.
Hadley & Grace by Suzanne Redfearn
When a girl fleeing an abusive marriage crosses paths with one other lady who’s on the run from her harmful husband—for very totally different causes—they change into on the spot accomplices by necessity fairly than by selection. With the FBI on their heels, this isn’t a lot a meandering road-trip as a long-distance chase that may depart you racing by way of the pages throughout the miles.
She’s As much as No Good by Sara Goodman Confino
As a lot as we could also be intrigued by the thought of touring with a stranger and even an outdated good friend, in actuality we in all probability take most of our journeys with household. In She’s As much as No Good, a girl blindsided by her divorce agrees to hit the highway together with her eccentric grandmother to the coastal Massachusetts city that holds a lot of their household’s historical past. Their candy intergenerational journey holds tales of affection misplaced and located.