The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles is the choice for this month’s Church Times Book Club. On the podcast this week, the Revd Dr Mark Oakley, who has written this month’s essay about the book, discusses it with Sarah Meyrick.

The Lincoln Highway is a classic American road-trip novel set in the 1950s. On release from a juvenile work camp, 18-year-old Emmett Watson decides to travel to California with his younger brother Billy on the highway of the book’s title. Stowed away in the trunk of the car are two former inmates. The travellers, in their quest for a better life, all have different aims. To accommodate everyone’s dreams, the ensuing ten-day journey ends up taking a different course. The story is told from the perspective of each of the characters. It is these authentic voices that add dramatic tension to the story’s plot line, always keeping the final destination unclear.

The Lincoln Highway is published by Cornerstone at £9.99 (Church Times Bookshop £8.99); 978-1-529-15764-2.

Dr Oakley is the Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge, and Canon Theologian of Wakefield Cathedral. It was announced recently that he is to be the next Dean of Southwark.

The Church Times Book Club is run in association with the Festival of Faith and Literature. 

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