Book Review: The Roadmap of Loss by Liam Murphy

 The Roadmap of Loss

by

Liam Murphy

Publisher: Echo Publishing

Publication date: 3rd January 2024

Genre: Literary Fiction  

Pages: 368

RRP: $32.99AU (trade paperback)

Source: Courtesy of the publisher 

 

Review: The Roadmap of Loss

The Roadmap of Loss is an affecting story about loss and grieving. Liam Murphy's writing is lyrical and evokes a sense of melancholy.

 

Mark Ward has always struggled with his sense of self carrying the burden of guilt over his father leaving him and his mother when he was five years old.

 

After his mother's sudden death, Mark finds a bundle of letters from his father to his mother. Letters filled with love set against the landscape of his travels across the United States. Mark decides to take his father's letters, pack up his life in Melbourne and retrace his father's journey, 20 years on, hoping to find closure.

 

I loved that The Roadmap of Loss was set in the 1990's, no mobile phones and no GPS made road travel exciting, dangerous and often spontaneous.

Mark is a young man with an enormous chip on his shoulder; angry, abusive and sullen. Perfect characterization made me neither like or dislike him. He brought problems onto himself so there was no sympathy, which was something he didn't want anyway.

 

Mark reads each of his father's letters as he arrives at the next destination and in a unique writing style the chapters start again from number one after each letter.

The Roadmap of Loss is a sombre read however there are also unexpected snippets of humour that actually had me laughing.

 

Liam Murphy's plethora of memorable characters that come in and out of Mark's life make for entertaining reading as he travels ten thousand hard and lonely miles across America.

I never knew how the story would evolve as Mark had a low regard for his own life and often danced with the idea of ending it.

 

The Roadmap of Loss is an insightful exploration of grief and the restorative power of forgiveness. A great read for those that enjoy lyrical prose and literary fiction.

 

My rating 4 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐