At fifty-six, Daniel Mercer has built a good life.He has a successful career, a comfortable home, old friends, and a daughter he loves. He is dependable, sensible, and very good at planning for what comes next.Then his younger brother dies.Days later, so does his father.In the aftermath, Dan returns to the life he knows best: work, routine, and the quiet conviction that there will always be time for everything else later.Then he meets Mara.She is funny, impulsive, occasionally infuriating, and remarkably good at getting Dan to do things he would normally put off. Dinner becomes an evening out. An empty Saturday becomes something worth remembering. Conversations with his daughter last longer. Work ends when the workday does.Nothing about Dan’s life becomes extraordinary.It simply begins to feel like his.But Mara has a past she rarely discusses, an unusual ease around grief, and a habit of appearing in places Dan cannot quite explain. The more important she becomes to him, the more difficult certain questions become to ignore.And Dan, who has spent thirty years helping other people prepare for what happens when a life ends, begins to wonder whether knowing how much time remains would change the way a person chooses to spend it.The Rest of His Life is a novel about grief, family, second chances, and the ordinary moments we assume will still be there tomorrow. Read more
