Let’s start with the obvious, the granddaddy of all road trip novels: On the way. If you’re reading this, you’ve no doubt already devoured Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel detailing various journeys taken by Sal Paradise and his best friend/buddy Dean Moriarty. The Beat classic more or less defined the entire genre of road trip novels for generations to come. So which ones are worth your time?
The following books describe various road trips—and, let’s be honest, a covered wagon ride. In many cases, the road trip becomes the literary vehicle for an inner journey where the characters discover facets of themselves. But other road trip novels focus on the country or society people are traveling to, showing new worlds or portraying familiar worlds in new ways. For a super meta experience, download these as audiobooks and listen to them while you drive.
roommate by Emma Copley Eisenberg
Loosely based on the relationship between photographer Berenice Abbott and critic Elizabeth McCausland, roommate uses the road trip to celebrate both queer and creative life. Roommates Bernie and Leah hit the road through rural Pennsylvania after Bernie’s former photography professor leaves behind a complicated legacy. As the miles tick by, they document the people they meet and the sights they see, opening themselves to both imaginative and romantic possibilities. Few metaphors for the freedom and possibilities of youth are as apt as that of the open road.
The hunger by Alma Katsu
The hunger adds a supernatural element to the true story of the Donner Party, the most famous covered wagon ride in American history. In the hands of Alma Katsu, the 19th century pioneers face one misfortune after another as they travel west from Illinois. Wolves and bears stalk them; rumors of demonic creatures grow louder. Eventually the group becomes stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Everyone seems to have a secret, and unexplained horrors like the mutilated body of a child only add to the deeply disturbing atmosphere. We all know what happened, don’t we?
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
The year is 1954, and four young men are driving along the Lincoln Highway from Nebraska to New York. This famous novel of the same name takes place over ten days, but it still presents a broad scope that portrays people and a country on the cusp of significant change. The Lincoln Highway was the first highway to cross America, and it fundamentally changed travel. Although each of us has the same end goal, hardly anyone leads a linear life. Instead, our lives wander, intersect, overlap, and zigzag until we arrive at our own exit.
Archive “Lost Children” by Valeria Luiselli
Like so many parents, the nameless, unhappily married mother and father in Archive “Lost Children” must find a way to keep their young children entertained on a long car ride. On the radio, they hear of children disappearing in the desert or being detained at the US-Mexico border. They talk about the Apaches, including Geronimo. They pass abandoned hotels and gas stations and see environmental destruction firsthand. This award-winning, genre-bending work builds to an epic climax and offers a powerful indictment of immigration policy, particularly as it relates to unaccompanied minors.
Lulu and Milagros search for clarity by Angela Velez
Lulu Zavala is doing her best to get into Stanford’s summer internship program. She also wants to mend the relationship between her overprotective Peruvian mother and her older sister Clara. Meanwhile, her other sister Milagro wants to win back her ex and lose her virginity, not necessarily in that order. Can the siblings put aside their differences – and maybe bond – on a bus trip from Baltimore to San Francisco? This sweet young adult novel might remind readers of happy memories of traveling with their own siblings.
Norwood by Charles Portis
True determination is the most beloved, but Charles Portis’ first novel, published in 1966, is worth a second look. As the comic novel opens, Norwood Pratt has just been discharged from the Marine Corps when he is robbed by a family. He travels cross-country from Texas to New York and back. The adventures that follow range from rescuing a fortune-telling chicken to falling in love on a long bus ride. Road trips are about the people we meet, Portis implies, as well as the (mis)adventures we have along the way.
Razor tears by SA Crosby
If they had the choice, Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee – two former prisoners with racist, homophobic and otherwise strongly misanthropic tendencies – would drive around in a beat-up truck. But after their married sons are murdered, Ike, a black man trying to remain honest, teams up with Buddy Lee, a poor white alcoholic, to avenge the murders. Raw and violent, Razor tears turns the cliché of the easy-going buddy adventure on its head. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Denzel Washington will play Ike and John Hawkes will play Buddy Lee in the upcoming film.
She’s up to no good by Sara Goodman Confino
In She’s up to no goodGrandma Evelyn sets off on a journey with her granddaughter Jenna. On the way to her hometown in Massachusetts, Evelyn tells the story of her first, forbidden love, while Jenna doesn’t understand why her husband wants a divorce. Two timelines drive the story forward, as Evelyn reconnects with her former flame after more than seventy years and Jenna begins spending time with his great-nephew. “You can’t go home again,” is the cliché, but you can always develop a more nuanced understanding of your family and your past.
Sometimes we tell the truth by Kim Zarins
Sometimes we tell the truth tells after The Canterbury Talesin which pilgrims visiting a religious shrine are replaced by contemporary teenagers on a school trip to Washington DC. The teacher as chaperone guarantees an automatic A to the person who can offer the best narrative. Some stories are true, some are made up, and some are shocking and about to change everything. Kim Zarins, who has a PhD and a specialty in medieval literature, closely links her characters to those of Chaucer. Both works underscore an important fact about road trips: There’s nothing like a story to pass the time.
The Wangs against the rest of the world by Jade Chang
Jade Chang uses the road trip to explore the immigrant experience, explore Asian American identity, and, most comically, subvert Asian stereotypes. As the novel opens, self-made millionaire Charles Wang is packing up his old station wagon and preparing to leave his Bel Air mansion before it goes into foreclosure. Having lost his fortune in a financial crisis, he intends to pick up his children from schools he can no longer afford, place them with his eldest daughter, and move to China to start over. But like a motorist who’s misplaced a map, nothing goes according to plan.
