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THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY

by Amor Towles ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 2021

An exhilarating ride through Americana.

Newly released from a work farm in 1950s Kansas, where he served 18 months for involuntary manslaughter, 18-year-old Emmett Watson hits the road with his little brother, Billy, following the death of their father and the foreclosure of their Nebraska farm.

They leave to escape angry townspeople who believe Emmett got off easy, having caused the fatal fall of a taunting local boy by punching him in the nose. The whip-smart Billy, who exhibits OCD–like symptoms, convinces Emmett to drive them to San Francisco to reunite with their mother, who left town eight years ago. He insists she's there, based on postcards she sent before completely disappearing from their lives. But when Emmett's prized red Studebaker is "borrowed" by two rambunctious, New York–bound escapees from the juvie facility he just left, Emmett takes after them via freight train with Billy in tow. Billy befriends a Black veteran named Ulysses who's been riding the rails nonstop since returning home from World War II to find his wife and baby boy gone. A modern picaresque with a host of characters, competing points of view, wandering narratives, and teasing chapter endings, Towles' third novel is even more entertaining than his much-acclaimed A Gentleman in Moscow (2016). You can quibble with one or two plot turns, but there's no resisting moments such as Billy's encounter, high up in the Empire State Building in the middle of the night, with professor Abacus Abernathe, whose Compendium of Heroes, Adventurers, and Other Intrepid Travelers he's read 24 times. A remarkable blend of sweetness and doom, Towles' novel is packed with revelations about the American myth, the art of storytelling, and the unrelenting pull of history.

Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-73-522235-9

Page Count: 592

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: June 21, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021

LITERARY FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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BOOK REVIEW

by Amor Towles

edited by Amor Towles ; series editor: Otto Penzler

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PERSPECTIVES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.

When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781250178633

Page Count: 480

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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by Kristin Hannah

BOOK TO SCREEN

SEEN & HEARD

by Catherine Newman ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 18, 2024

A moving, hilarious reminder that parenthood, just like life, means constant change.

During an annual beach vacation, a mother confronts her past and learns to move forward.

Her family’s annual trip to Cape Cod is always the highlight of Rocky’s year—even more so now that her children are grown and she cherishes what little time she gets with them. Rocky is deep in the throes of menopause, picking fights with her loving husband and occasionally throwing off her clothes during a hot flash, much to the chagrin of her family. She’s also dealing with her parents, who are crammed into the same small summer house (with one toilet that only occasionally spews sewage everywhere) and who are aging at an alarmingly rapid rate. Rocky’s life is full of change, from her body to her identity—she frequently flashes back to the vacations of years past, when her children were tiny. Although she’s grateful for the family she has, she mourns what she’s lost. Newman (author of the equally wonderful We All Want Impossible Things , 2022) imbues Rocky’s internal struggles with importance and gravity, all while showcasing her very funny observations about life and parenting. She examines motherhood with a raw honesty that few others manage—she remembers the hard parts, the depths of despair, panic, and anxiety that can happen with young children, and she also recounts the joy in a way that never feels saccharine. She has a gift for exploring the real, messy contradictions in human emotions. As Rocky puts it, “This may be the only reason we were put on this earth. To say to each other, I know how you feel .”

Pub Date: June 18, 2024

ISBN: 9780063345164

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024

LITERARY FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION

More by Catherine Newman

by Catherine Newman

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The Lincoln Highway (Review, Recap & Full Summary)

By amor towles.

Book review, full book summary and synopsis for The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, a story about four young men journeying from Nebraska to New York City set in 1950's America.

In The Lincoln Highway , eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska in June 1954 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.

(The Full Plot Summary is also available, below)

Full Plot Summary

The two-paragraph version: Emmett (18) has just gotten out of juvie and is now planning to drive down the Lincoln Highway to move to San Francisco with his younger brother Billy (8). Billy hopes to find their mother (who left them 8 years ago) there. However, two guys (Duchess and Woolly) have snuck out from juvie and have followed Emmett home, hoping to convince him to help with a caper in New York to take back Woolly's $150K trust fund (which Woolly has been deemed "unfit" to access). When Emmett declines, Duchess "borrows" Emmett's car, forcing Emmet and Billy to stowaway on a train to New York to find Duchess and Woolly and reclaim it. They are aided by Sally, a family friend, and Ulysses, a black man they meet on the train.

Meanwhile, Duchess is also trying to settle some debts against along the way, and he attacks their former warden and other people. When they finally all reach Woolly's grandfather's lakeside house (where the safe with the money is), it turns out Woolly doesn't even know the combination to the safe. Woolly kills himself (which Emmett thinks was his plan all along since he was unhappy and misunderstood by his family), and Emmett and Duchess have a confrontation that turns violent. Ultimately, Billy is able to guess the safe combination, and Emmett puts Duchess (who can't swim) in a leaky boat on the lake with his share of the money. The book ends with Billy, Emmett and Sally heading off to San Francisco, while Duchess drowns trying to save his money from flying away (rather than floating back to safety).

(The book chapters count down from 10 to 1.)

Chapters 10 and 9 open with Emmett Watson (18) returning home to Morgen, Nebraska (dropped off by Warden Williams ) after having spent a year in juvenile detention for killing Jimmy Snyder . Jimmy was a troublemaker who had goaded Emmett into punching him. It caused Jimmy to fall and hit his head on a cinder block, resulting in his death.

In present day, Emmett learns his father's farm is being foreclosed upon by the bank. When Emmett tells his younger brother, Billy (8), that they will need to move, Billy suggests they move to San Francisco. Billy has recently found some old postcards indicating their mother (who left them 8 years ago) once took the journey there down the Lincoln Highway. Billy hopes she might still be living there now. While Emmett thinks his brother's plan of tracking down their mother in California is crazy, he knows that California (due to its high population growth) is a good place for him to pursue his goal of achieving financial stability by renovating and selling houses. After some research, he agrees to the plan.

They're soon interrupted by the presence of Duchess and Woolly , two guys Emmett knows from juvie. Duchess spent a few years in an orphanage, being raised by nuns, after his father abandoned him there for two years when he was 8. Meanwhile, Woolly is a troubled rich kid.

They explain that they stowed away in Warden Williams's trunk and have a proposition for Emmett. Woolly is the beneficiary of a trust fund that should have come under his control now that he's 18. However, his brother-in-law Dennis had him declared "unfit". There's also a wall safe at his great-grandfather's house in upstate New York that contains roughly the same amount of money as his trust fund, $150,000. They want Emmett to go with them to help Woolly get the cash, and in exchange they'll split the money evenly among the three of them. Emmett immediately declines.

The next morning, Sally Ransom , their neighbor and a former romantic interest of Emmett's drops by. She's upset to learn from Duchess that Emmett plans on leaving. In town, Jake Snyder (brother of Jimmy Snyder) accosts Emmett, trying to goad him into a fight and then punching Emmett a few times, though Emmett doesn't fight back.

In Chapters 8 and 7 , they hit the road with the plan of dropping Woolly and Duchess off at the bus stop in Omaha before Emmett and Billy continue on to San Francisco. However, Duchess derails the plan. He asks them to make a pit stop at the orphanage he stayed in for a few years as a child (because his father abandoned him there temporarily). There, he causes a commotion and then drives off with Woolly in Emmett's car (and inadvertently with all of Emmett's money), headed to New York. He promises to be back soon and to give Emmett his share of the cash when they return.

With no money and no mode of transportation, Emmett and Billy hitch a ride on a train to go to New York to track down Duchess and Woolly. On the train, Billy nearly gets his silver coin collection stolen from him by a fake pastor, "Pastor" John , but Pastor John is stopped by Ulysses -- a black WWII vet who is also hitching a ride on the train. Ulysses is a seasoned boxcar traveler, who has been iterant ever since he returned from the war to learn that his wife left him.

Billy gets to know Ulysses, and he tells Ulysses the legend of the Greek hero Ulysses. Billy has been reading an abridged version of from a big red book authored by someone named Professor Abacus Abernathe . The book features a number of great travelers and adventurers, both real and fictional.

Meanwhile, Duchess and Woolly have driven as far as Illinois by now. Duchess plans to start a new life after all of this and wants to clear out any debts he owes or owed to him before he does. They make a quick stop at the house of the retired former warden, Ackerly , who used to beat them. Duchess hits him on the head with a cast-iron skillet and leaves, noting that Ackerly's debt to him has been paid.

In Chapters 6 and 5 , they all make their way to New York. Duchess's goes looking for his father ( Harry ), who is trying to evade him after learning that Duchess escaped from juvie. Duchess finds Fitzy FitzWilliams , an old friend of Harry. We learn that when Duchess was 16, he framed by Harry for a number of thefts in the hotel they were living in (which Harry had actually committed). Fitzy lied in a statement to corroborate Harry's lie. In present day, Duchess guilts Fitzy into giving him Harry's current address in Syracuse.

Afterwards, Duchess goes to visit Townhouse, who was released from Salina a while ago. He wants to settle accounts with him, since Duchess owes Townhouse for having gotten Townhouse in trouble once. The two get squared away, and before Duchess leaves, he impulsively gives Townhouse's cousin Maurice the keys to Emmett's Studebaker (he thinks of it as a good deed that he's doing).

Elsewhere, Ulysses takes Billy and Emmett to a vagrant camp where they can stay for the night. Emmett goes into the city to track down Duchess, who knows is looking for his father. He gets Harry's former address from his agency. It leads him to Fitzy, who tells him about Duchess's past and also gives him Harry's Syracuse address.

Meanwhile, Woolly visits his sister Sarah who says that she has talked to Warden Williams, who is offering Woolly minimal consequences if he returns to juvie immediately. And back at that camp, Ulysses and Billy are attacked by Pastor John. However, Ulysses kills him and drops his body into the river.

In Chapters 4 and 3 , Emmett goes to visit Townhouse, who warns that the police recently came by looking for Duchess. He thinks it's about something more serious than Duchess's escape from Salina. He also returns Emmett's Studebaker to him, and his friends offer to repaint it since the police seem to have associated as blue Studebaker with whatever crime Duchess committed. Townhouse then directs Emmett to where Duchess will be that night, which turns out to be a raunchy circus show attached to a brothel. Emmett confronts Duchess and tries to get him to leave. However, Duchess drugs Emmett, leaves him at the brothel and ducks out.

Before heading to Sarah's place, the group passes by the location described in Billy's big red book as the offices of Professor Abacus Abernathe. They go to visit him and see that he's a real person. Billy tells Abacus about his own adventures. Abacus asks to meet Ulysses, and the two become acquainted.

Back at Sarah's place, Emmett eventually shows up. However, because he wasn't able to check in with Sally as he'd promised earlier, Sally ends up heading to New York (after attempting to call them) to check on Emmett and Billy. She arrives soon after Emmett. They all have a delightful dinner, but soon Dennis and Sarah come home. Dennis is furious to learn that Woolly is not at Salina. He demands that Woolly go work for one of his stockbroker friends after he finishes his sentence.

In Chapter 2 , Woolly and Duchess sneak out early and make their way to Woolly's great-grandfather's house in the Adirondacks in order to take the $150K from the safe. However, when they arrive, it turns out Woolly doesn't know the combination (and it never occurred to him there would be one). Then, as Duchess tries to hack open the safe, Woolly takes a bunch of pills and kills himself.

Elsewhere, Abacus thinks about how Billy has reawakened his desire for adventure. He decides to go with Ulysses to travel via boxcar and seek out his own adventure.

In Chapter 1 , Emmett arrives at Woolly's great-grandfather's house to find Woolly dead and Duchess still trying to get the safe open. Emmett and Duchess scuffle, and Emmett knocks Duchess out. (He doesn't kill Duchess because he had made a promise to Billy not to lash out again.) Meanwhile, Billy guesses the safe combination based on something Woolly had said about his great-grandfather loving the 4th of July. They also find Woolly's will, splitting up his $150K trust fund equally between Billy, Emmett and Duchess.

The book ends with Emmett leaving Duchess in a leaky boat with no oars and with his $50K share in cash. As Duchess tries to get to the money before it flies away, he drowns. Meanwhile, Emmett and Billy head for San Francisco. Sally joins them (platonically) so she can start a new life out there as well.

For more detail, see the full Chapter-by-Chapter Summary .

If this summary was useful to you, please consider supporting this site by leaving a tip ( $2 , $3 , or $5 ) or joining the Patreon !

Book Review

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles is a book I’ve really been looking forward to ever since it was announced. Like many people, I really enjoyed his previous novel A Gentleman in Moscow , and I’ve been eager to revisit his writing.

Blue 1948 Studebaker Land Cruiser

The Lincoln Highway is an adventure story through and through. It tells the story of two brothers with a plan to travel down the Lincoln Highway from Nebraska to San Francisco, though their plans quickly get derailed from the onset.

I loved the tone and the atmosphere of this novel. The sense of adventure and knowing that the book has exciting times and surprises in store for you made it easy for me to look forward to what was coming next.

I also appreciated the journey that Towles takes each character on. He slowly reveals their character and backstory in a way that’s surprising and engaging. In general, I appreciated the parts of the characters that were complex and imperfect.

Beyond that, every section of this book feels crafted for a particular purpose, to bring the story forward in a particular way, though you may not realize it at the time. Like in A Gentleman in Moscow , Towles sets up specific plot points early on throughout the story, knowing he plans on revisiting them in a way that feels gratifying when you reach the later parts of the book.

Some Criticisms

That said, I didn’t fall in love with this book the way I was hoping to. In terms of the main character, Emmett felt a little vanilla at times to me, like a very generic leading man. He was easily the most predictable of the characters, which make him the least interesting to me. Meanwhile, while they were certainly less predictable, both Duchess and Woolly were a little much , in that they were too devious or too ridiculous at times. Something about them just felt a little cartoonish to me.

Meanwhile, Billy is the stereotypical precocious and overly-curious kid that movies and books love to cast in their stories. Moreover, the whole idea that Emmett would ever take Billy on this incredibly dangerous trip when there is a perfectly safe and caring place he could stay requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. It made it a lot harder to take this book seriously.

It’s a book that seems to want to feel grand and epic in scope — four adventurers traveling across the United States! — but doesn’t quite get there. The frequent references to things like Shakespeare, Odysseus, and other legendary characters only underscored for me how much smaller and less emotionally-impactful this story feels.

There are definitely moments where this book shines and it seems to capture precisely the fun, adventurous, freewheeling feeling it seems to be going for — but there’s some unevenness to it. Mixed in there are equal stretches of text when the story drags a little and feels a little mundane.

Read it or Skip it?

If you’re someone who loves a good adventure or a journey à la The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or something of that vein, The Lincoln Highway will probably be right up your ally. For the most part, it really captures that excitement of not knowing who they’ll come across next or what hijinks the various characters will get up to.

However, as I said before, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. While there was a fun sense of adventure, the story didn’t feel as epic as it seemed to be trying to be, and it didn’t seem to have a strong emotional pull to make me fall in love with it. It’s a long book that’s worth the time and effort, but it also often feels long as you’re reading it, if you know what I mean.

I think most book clubs could enjoy this though. Like I said, there’s plenty of discovery, adventure and fun hijinks in store if you decide to read it!

The Lincoln Highway Audiobook Review

Narrated by : Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland & Dion Graham Length : 16 hours 38 minutes

I found the audiobook for The Lincoln High to perfectly serviceable and easy to listen to. The narrators all speak in a crisp, soothing well-paced manner.

There wasn’t anything about it that particular stood out to me, but if you’re interested in this story anyway, this audiobook is a great option.

Hear a sample of The Lincoln Highway audiobook on Libro.fm.

Discussion Questions

• How would you describe Emmett and Billy’s personalities? Why do you they are similar or different?
• What do you think about Emmett’s attitude toward Sally? What do you think of her expectations of him and what he seems to think her expectations are?
• What did you think of Emmett’s relationships with his father and mother? Do you think they were good parents to Emmett and do you think they were good people?
• What did you think of the side characters like Ulysses, Sally, Sarah or Professor Abernathe? Whose story interested you the most and why?
• Emmett is conscientious about wanting to protect his brother from questionable activities and less savory elements of life, but Billy seems to romanticize these things. What do you think about the decisions he makes?
• What did you think of the character of Billy? Did you find him believable as a character? Do you think you were similar to him as a kid?
• Why do you think the characters in the book are so concerned with settling debts and dealing with their obligations?
• What did you think of the character of Woolly? Do you think things could have turned out differently for him? What do you think would have needed to happen for his life to turn out differently? Why do you think Woolly is so fixated on avoiding a every-day-kind-of-day? Why do you think Woolly does what he does at the end of the book?
• Do you think Duchess is a good or bad person at heart? Do you think he could have been redeemed? Why do you think his story ended the way it did?
• Why do you think Sally decides to go to San Francisco? What do you think will happen to her father
• What do you think happens after the characters end up in San Francisco? Were you happy with the way the story ended?

Book Excerpt

Read the first pages of The Lincoln Highway

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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.

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13 comments

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Lincoln Highway had literary touches similar to A Gentleman in Moscow especially when it diverged to secondary characters. In describing Lincoln Highway to others, it is a modern day Huckleberry Finn/The Wizard of Oz adventure….not on the Mississippi but instead, on America’s oldest highway. While the characters are rendered flawed and at the same time lovable…even Duchess who caused so much havoc along the way. It is Woolly and Billy, each on the opposite end of the intellectual spectrum, who are endowed with a unique sense of insight and prove true goodness. Now, Duchess’ ultimate undoing really bothered me in that, while well deserved, nonetheless proved Emmett really hadn’t “learned his lesson.”

9. My optimistic view on the ending: consider that this is Billy’s book, and everything in it was either witnessed by him or told to him by someone else, or made up. He could not know that Duchess drowned, because he and Emmett drove away in the car. If they were still there, they would have rescued him. So either they were not there, or they did rescue him after he went in the water.

If Billy was not there, then he made up the last bit to 1) fit his hero/morality story agenda about how heroes and anti-heroes die from their one weakness (here greed); and 2) to protect Duchess (and themselves) from the police by telling a made-up story about Duchess’s death, when really he got away with the money, as did Billy and his brother.

After reading Gentle in Moscow, I thought, so what. The story left me cold. I am one third through Lincoln Highway and find myself skipping through the wordiness to get to some point. Don’t think I will persist as I have other books calling me. The book needs a serious edit, taking out all the verbs to be to begin with. One wonders how this writer sells so many books as I don’t think he is a good writer.

My adult daughter and I absolutely loved this book! We finished it in 3 days because we could not put it down. We loved how it was written and cannot wait to read another of his books.

I agree with you about the book. Besides what you wrote, I was also dissatisfied with the ending. I didn’t really understand why Woolly committed suicide. And I didn’t really understand why Emmett set Duchess afloat like that. It seemed too mean for Emmett’s character. Also, Duchess could have just been patient and waited until the wind died on the lake. His emotion and desire for the money overcame his good sense. That was clear; but the Duchess I had come to know in the earlier chapters would have had more sense. Could you comment, please?

In my opinion Wolly committed suicide because he felt he had no other choice. There was clearly something wrong with him mentally and with the book set in the 1950’s there was not much available to him. He didn’t want to keep “fighting” for his life to get better he wanted to go back and revisit the place he was the happiest. Plus the only person in his life that seemed to care was Sarah. It was sad, but I understand that feeling of hopelessness!

I enjoyed the novel but there is one plot device which I found completely implausible. When Emmett realizes Duchess has stolen his car it does not occur to him to call the police and even more unbelievable is that he thinks he and Billy can take a freight train to NY city and there find Duchess and his car. Did he think he and Billy would just stroll around the sidewalks of NY and just by a stroke of luck find Duchess who would then be happy to return the stolen car and the money hidden in it? He is depicted as a smart level headed person so it is hard to believe he could be that naive.

Emmett did not put Duchess in the boat with a hole in it and a promise to Billy not to hurt Duchess any more than he had, so Emmett puts Duchess in the caddie. So who put Duchess in the boat. Well it certainly wasn’t Billy, so that leaves only one person left

Two mistakes/typos in Chapter 1 of this summary.

It is Duchess (NOT Woolly) who is still trying to get the safe open when Emmett arrives at Woolly’s great-grandfather’s house.

The book ends with Emmett leaving Duchess in a leaky boat with no oars (NOT no oaks).

Are the copy editors leaving all their work up to spell-check?

Barb, I didn’t catch those mistakes but a couple things bugged me. The fire that Wooly set at his private school might have burned down the goalpost but it would have been the old style goalpost shaped like an ‘H’, not the kind used today with one post in the ground. When talking about Sally’s truck it’s mentioned that she put something in the back seat but farm trucks in the early fifties didn’t have ‘crewcabs’. Also found it funny that the sheriff, when taking Emmet home, asks if he can smoke in the Studebaker. I think that at that time it was assumed one could smoke anywhere.

Don’t know why I see things like this as it doesn’t really matter but, hey, why not mention it.

Woolly, was my favorite character. Rules of Civility his first book gives reference to Woolly.

I didn’t like the way the book ended at all. Did Duchess really deserve this? I also wasn’t fond of how the author switches back and forth. He leaves one chapter as a cliff hanger and then proceeds onto the next character. I read it because I was determined to finish what I started but would not read it again.

The Lincoln Highway Book Club Questions & Discussion Guide

Transporting the reader back to the 1950s, with a story stretching from the Midwest to both coasts, The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles has made nearly every major “best of” literary list in 2021. Much like the titular Interstate, The Lincoln Highway spans the country, connecting the stories of five young characters in Midcentury America, and presenting a slice of a time that was in no way simple.

This book is not a quaint portrait of a romantic era. Rather, The Lincoln Highway is a layered journey about the burdens of expectations, the grief of lost dreams, and the meaning of home. 

The Lincoln Highway offers a beautiful journey for any book club, appealing to readers of all ages and backgrounds. Fans of the author’s other works will likely even notice sly connections to Towles’ other characters!

These The Lincoln Highway book club questions can help your book club navigate the winding roads of the many characters and themes throughout the novel. This The Lincoln Highway discussion guide also includes a synopsis, selected reviews and discussion prompts.

We’ve also got three suggested books like The Lincoln Highway for you to read next.

(This article contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase, I’ll make a small commission.)

The Lincoln Highway Synopsis

The Lincoln Highway , by Amor Towles

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.

10 The Lincoln Highway Book Club Questions

These questions have been tailored to this book’s specific reading experience, but if you want more ideas, we also have an article with 101 generic book club questions .

• Every character–main and secondary–in this novel has a dream. Some are big and some are simple, but all of the hopes and dreams have collateral consequences. Whose dreams do you think had the biggest impact on the rest of the characters? Whose dreams do you identify with most?
• The Lincoln Highway is full of expectations based on class, gender, and race. The burden of expectations can be heavy. Discuss how expectations affect the character’s choices. How have others’ expectations of you changed the decisions you’ve made in your life? What expectations might have been on you, if you were a young adult in the 1950s?
• Duchess spends much of the novel concerned with settling moral debts both owed and owed to him. Do you agree with his idea that the universe is keeping score in some way? Do you think he deserved the ending he got? What do you think his life would have looked like if he had known how to swim?
• By all accounts, Wooly lived a life of privilege unlike any of the other characters. But, Wooly was very different than the other boys. In today’s world, Wooly might have been diagnosed with a mental health or cognitive condition and received treatment.  If Wooly were alive today, how do you think his journey might have ended? How have we made progress in the treatment of young adult mental health, and where is there progress yet to be made?
• A central theme of The Lincoln Highway is ambition–wanting more than you were born into. What do you think happened to Emmett and Billy’s mother? Where do you think she is now? Besides the boy’s mother, Sally serves as the central female character in the book. What do you make of the relationship between Emmett and Sally? What do you think happens to Sally after the novel ends?
• One of the criticisms of the book is the depiction of Billy as overly precocious beyond his years. Have you ever known a child like that? Were you a child like that? Do you think Emmett was fit to be a caregiver for his younger brother?
• The Lincoln Highway is a book about metamorphosis. Which character do you think transforms the most over the course of the book?
• Even though there are a handful of central characters, the novel introduces many secondary characters along the journey. Of those, who do you most identify with? Which of the supporting characters would you like to read a full novel about?
• The era of the book almost functions as another character — what themes in the book do you think are unique to the time period, and which ones do you think would persist if the novel took place in modern times?
• With all that happens in the novel, it’s hard to believe it only spans 10 days. What were the most memorable 10 days of your life? Why do you think the author chose to constrain the story to this limited amount of time? 

Selected Reviews for The Lincoln Highway

“Amor Towles spins a beguiling and rollicking historical adventure set in the 1950s, brilliantly imaginative, and with an unforgettable cast of character…A superb novel that I recommend highly, a wonderful must read.” 

“A meandering, long-winded adventure with too many side stories. But the characters, especially Emmett and Billy, kept me reading. The novel moves along at a steady clip and I mostly enjoyed the ride.”

“Amor Towles is a gifted storyteller. The trouble here was that he couldn’t seem to decide which story he wanted to tell. So he told them all. In one novel. What it felt like to me was that he knew a lot of odd and eccentric things about the early to mid-20th century, and he wanted to find a way to include them all in the book.”

“Wit, humor, intrigue, sophisticated storytelling, a flawless command of style, fascinating and compelling characters, splendid atmosphere, exquisite insight into human behavior-it’s all here.”

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3 Books Like The Lincoln Highway

If you are keen to read more historical perspective on the Black American experience, consider The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerton Sexton. It features a multigenerational story set in 1920’s rural Louisiana and present day New Orleans. We have a book club guide for The Revisioners , which also has some additional related reading suggestions.

The Lincoln Highway is also a Read with Jenna book club pic. If you like her suggestions, you can also check out recent pics like The Dutch House , Great Circle and Dear Edward . We also have a guide for Towle’s A Gentleman in Moscow .

And here are three more books like The Lincoln Highway :

Rules of Civility , Amor Towles.

Another of the author’s works that dives into a unique era in American history–the late 1930’s. This book explores many of the same themes as The Lincoln Highway–expectations, ambition, class and family–set amongst the backdrop of a New York City emerging from the depression. 

As I Lay Dying , William Faulkner.

A classic novel told from multiple points of view, this book tells the story of a family’s journey to their dead matriarch’s hometown as they venture to fulfill her wish to be buried in Jefferson, Mississippi. The many characters are shaped not only by their internal dialogue, but also by the way we see them through the eyes of others. 

Harlem Shuffle , Colson Whitehead.

New York City takes center stage in this novel, set in the early 1960’s, where the Black experience in a changing neighborhood illuminates the internal struggle between ambition and safety. Although the lives of the characters in Harlem Shuffle are profoundly different than those in The Lincoln Highway , Whitehead explores many of the same themes: class, greed, and the hunger to make something out of a life where the deck seems stacked against you.

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