MARVELOUS DAYS

In Thompson’s literary novel, a widowed flâneur finds a second act in travel.

Kevin Brunner’s retirement in 2012 presents something of an existential crisis. An American expat who settled in Germany 30 years earlier, he’s spent half that time as a widower, throwing himself into his work as a biologist to distract himself from the grief he feels over his German wife’s death. Now, at age 63, he is alone—his adult son Dan has married and moved to Hong Kong—with a lot of time on his hands to sit at home and think. “I’d imagined a vague retirement plan, thinking all would be nice and easy with my free time of plenty. But now, a sense of being domesticated within a confined apartment crept in.” Experiencing an unprecedented wanderlust, Kevin decides to travel, and neighboring France is on the top of his list—due, in part, to the attractive Parisian, Adeline Toussaint, whom he recently met on a train. While cleaning up his flat, Kevin discovers evidence that his wife had carried on an affair with another man long ago—a revelation that causes him to feel as though he’s lost her a second time. Feeling new uncertainty about nearly every aspect of his life—including his identity as a husband, father, scientist, and expat—Kevin spends nearly a decade roaming the towns and cities of France, seeking catharsis in new places and people. Thompson succeeds in capturing the peculiar blend of pleasure and melancholy that comes from travel, the way novelty both distracts from and highlights the preoccupations of the traveler. “These trips, these constant motions,” narrates Kevin, “though taken at times with my unstable moods, had proved to be a panacea preventing me from revolving in dreariness. Happy moments existed, though it was an uphill road. Still, they were taking the reins these days. I’d try to make them last.” There isn’t much in the way of a traditional plot here, but Kevin’s peregrinations and the passage of time ensure the story is always moving.

A richly meditative novel about aging and travel.