Road Longer Than Memory: Literary Fiction with the Page-Turning Tension of a Psychological Mystery

Description

Sometimes the road home runs through everything you tried to forget

After a failed relationship and an unsettled teaching career, Sara Barlow returns to her childhood home in Arlington, Virginia, hoping for a fresh start. But when she applies for a job at her old high school, a chance glimpse into the gymnasium shakes her to the core–she spots the man she suspects was involved in a classmate’s violent death a decade earlier.

Haunted by the past, Sara confronts the memories she’s spent years trying to suppress: her sister Suzanne’s fatal car crash, her secret summer with the reckless Devlin Barrie, and the anonymous 911 call she made after witnessing what she believes was a murder. As the construction of Interstate 66 physically fractures her community, Sara grapples with emotional fault lines of her own–guilt, silence, and buried truth.

Set against the backdrop of suburban upheaval in the 1970s and ’80s, Road Longer Than Memory is a compelling story of memory, reckoning, and the cost of what we leave unsaid.

Perfect for fans of Tana French and William Kent Krueger

Binding Type: Paperback
Author: Melanie McCabe
Published: 06/02/2026
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
ISBN: 9781608096527
Pages: 300
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 0.90″ H x 8.20″ L x 5.50″ W

About the Author

Melanie McCabe is the award-winning author of four poetry collections and a memoir. Road Longer Than Memory is her debut novel. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, The Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review, Shenandoah, and other national publications. A lifelong Virginian, she taught high school English and creative writing in Arlington for over two decades.