The North Road

‘Haunted and haunting: Cowen tracks the London-Edinburgh highway in a mesmerising exploration of time, place, memory and identity. A dazzlingly inventive work of literature.’ * Robert Macfarlane *
‘This thought-provoking and beautiful exploration of that most humanised of spaces, the road, shows how our lives are always intimately bound to those of others within the social landscape. Through sharing and celebrating this common journey, Cowen manages to demonstrate the wonder of what it is to be alive. This is a book that will have your heart ringing like a bell.’ * Matt Gaw *
'A dazzling, dogged, layered account of one road’s passage through place, time and an ordinary family’s history, The North Road truly is a trip.' * Melissa Harrison *
‘A masterful weaving of time and place. The North Road offers a rare, strong blend of national and personal - sweeping, sensitive and enduring.’ * Tristan Gooley *
‘Rob Cowen's account of a journey on foot fragments - startlingly - into history, fiction, philosophical enquiry and fearless memoir. A beautifully woven and mesmerising book.’ * Tom Bullough *
'I don’t know how he does it, but in combining deep history, travel, memoir, fiction and so much more besides, Rob Cowen has created something stunning and utterly unique. The North Road sits in a genre of one. He’s a wandering wizard, a magician whose brilliance lies not in trickery, but in real talent and a wild, untamed imagination that’s capable of transcending time.' * Benjamin Myers *
'Rob Cowen weighs up the mighty A1 from the hard-packed solum beneath its pitch to the aerial maps by which so many steer its course. A deep time hymn to a mercurial trunk route that’s beckoned, blistered and borne travellers for centuries unknown, The North Road is by turns brilliant, questing and poignant. Equal parts ardent asphalt anthem and song to belonging, Cowen’s new book is a north/south tour de force.' * Dan Richards *
‘I loved the combination of memoir, history, family story, the vivid fictional interludes. All the familiar places referenced along Rob Cowen’s journey made The North Road feel universal; many will get a similar resonance from it as I did. Rob has given the A1 an entirely new sense of life.’ * Luke Turner *
'A road, like a story, is never just that. Both have roots, tributaries, ancestors and consequences. From first step to surprise destination, The North Road is as layered and braided as the route it follows, and as brutal, beautiful and unique as a life. With his singular blend of research, personal exploration and intensely visceral storytelling, Rob Cowen is truly in a class of his own.' * Amy-Jane Beer *
'Rob Cowen is an enchanter, and he has conjured up a classic with this extraordinary, multi-layered knockout of a book. The North Road asks all the big questions – identity, history, memory, belonging – and offers riffs and responses that are both personal and universal, never glib, always beguiling.' * Dr Sharon Blackie *