What do you think?
Rate this book
Mountain Road, Late at Night
Nicholas and his wife April live in a remote cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains with their four-year-old son, Jack. They keep their families at a distance, rejecting what their loved ones think of as "normal." In the early hours of a Wednesday morning, they are driving home from a party when their car crashes on a deserted road and they are killed. As the couple's grieving relatives descend on the family home, they are forced to decide who will care for the child Nicholas and April left behind. Nicholas's brother, Nathaniel, and his wife Stephanie feel entirely unready to be parents, but his mother and father have issues of their own. And April’s mother, Tammy, is driving across the country to claim her grandson. Experiencing a few traumatic days in the minds of each family member, Alan Rossi's Mountain Road, Late at Night is a taut, nuanced, and breathtaking look at what we do when everything goes wrong, and the frightening fact that life carries on, regardless. It is a gripping, affecting, and extremely accomplished debut.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2020
6 people are currently reading
295 people want to read
About the author
Alan Rossi
3 books28 followersI am the author of this bio, writing in the third person about myself: Alan Rossi’s fiction has appeared in Granta, the Missouri Review, Conjunctions, New England Review, Agni, and Ninth Letter, among others. His novella, Did You Really Just Say That To Me?, was awarded the third annual New England Review Award for Emerging Writers, and he was the New England Review/Bread Loaf Scholar for 2017. He is also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and an O. Henry Prize. His first novel, Mountain Road, Late at Night, was published by Picador in 2020. His second novel, Our Last Year, was published in the fall of 2022.
My website, which is just a blog, is linked somewhere around here.
My website, which is just a blog, is linked somewhere around here.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
February 8, 2020
When a young couple, Nicholas and April, are killed in a car accident on their way home from a party, questions arise over who will raise their four year old son, Jack.
Nicholas’s brother, Nathaniel and his wife Stefanie, are willing to step up, but no one, including them, are sure they are ready for the responsibility. Nicholas and Nathaniel’s parents, Katherine and David, have the resources to provide for their grandson but their marriage is on shaky ground, while Tammy wants the chance to atone for the mistakes she made as a young, single mother to April.
Unfolding in four parts, Rossi takes us into the minds of Nathaniel, Katherine, and Tammy in the days following their loss as they grapple with their grief, anxieties, regrets, and mortality, while facing the decisions that must be made as life continues.
I was impressed by the authenticity of each voice, but I also found it exhausting to be so immersed in the unfiltered thoughts of these characters. Nathaniel’s angst, Katherine’s confused grief, and Tammy’s guilt are intensely felt as they hold somewhat circular discussions with themselves, and others, about what they are, and should, be thinking, feeling, and doing.
It was the final devastating chapter though that affected me the most as Rossi takes us into the mind of Nicholas, badly injured and trapped in his upturned car for hours, as he contemplates the life he has lived, and what he will leave behind.
Though this is not really the sort of reading I prefer, objectively I can recognise the literary merit of Mountain Road, Late at Night, I and admire what Rossi has accomplished.
Nicholas’s brother, Nathaniel and his wife Stefanie, are willing to step up, but no one, including them, are sure they are ready for the responsibility. Nicholas and Nathaniel’s parents, Katherine and David, have the resources to provide for their grandson but their marriage is on shaky ground, while Tammy wants the chance to atone for the mistakes she made as a young, single mother to April.
Unfolding in four parts, Rossi takes us into the minds of Nathaniel, Katherine, and Tammy in the days following their loss as they grapple with their grief, anxieties, regrets, and mortality, while facing the decisions that must be made as life continues.
I was impressed by the authenticity of each voice, but I also found it exhausting to be so immersed in the unfiltered thoughts of these characters. Nathaniel’s angst, Katherine’s confused grief, and Tammy’s guilt are intensely felt as they hold somewhat circular discussions with themselves, and others, about what they are, and should, be thinking, feeling, and doing.
It was the final devastating chapter though that affected me the most as Rossi takes us into the mind of Nicholas, badly injured and trapped in his upturned car for hours, as he contemplates the life he has lived, and what he will leave behind.
Though this is not really the sort of reading I prefer, objectively I can recognise the literary merit of Mountain Road, Late at Night, I and admire what Rossi has accomplished.
April 19, 2020
I finished this book a week ago. It's stayed with me, heavy and important, and pressed upon me like a dream I can't shake because of its subconscious importance. And, much like life in real time, I can't quite yet understand yet.
Other reviews have done an apt job in summarizing its premise: a boy is now an orphan, and this unwanted reality ripples a tragic emotional explosion on the boy's extended family. What I want to focus on is Rossi's superb style and craft. The narration told in stream of consciousness from four different points of view not only echoes, but bring forth the masters of craft, illustrating how to expertly tell a messy trail of thought in deliberate calculation. Somewhere Joyce and Faulkner and Salinger are nodding and thinking, yes, this is how it is done.
Rossi grants us access to feel the pain and turmoil of an unknowingly selfish man discovering that he is not selfish at all, a heartbroken mom that struggles to overcome her guilt from personal choices so she can, hopefully, and optimistically, dive into her own grief at the loss of her son, another mother so bent on false pride redemption, due to past motherly moments, that she unwittingly can't accept that her future choices are superficially solipsistic, and then, the most heartbreaking of all, a father and husband understanding his life in the moment of his death. Oh, how I cried with this one.
The last chapter reads like a Buddhist asking for forgiveness in the face of unwanted self-actualization, terrified that that the existentialists were right, yet strong enough to transcend this bleakness to find meaning in his existence before he doesn't have one. The last three pages narrate as a manic expression of human devotion. This is the closest I've ever come to reading the definition of love. According to Rossi, to love means to continue breathing in the face of tragedy as we imbibe our foolishness and fear and awe and gratitude of this world. This is what fills our lungs, and this is what dares us to find fault in how we live, which is the only way to understand why we live. Hopefully then, we can understand that the only reason we live, in spite of life's nonsense, is to love.
Holy goodness this was a great book. Read it.
Other reviews have done an apt job in summarizing its premise: a boy is now an orphan, and this unwanted reality ripples a tragic emotional explosion on the boy's extended family. What I want to focus on is Rossi's superb style and craft. The narration told in stream of consciousness from four different points of view not only echoes, but bring forth the masters of craft, illustrating how to expertly tell a messy trail of thought in deliberate calculation. Somewhere Joyce and Faulkner and Salinger are nodding and thinking, yes, this is how it is done.
Rossi grants us access to feel the pain and turmoil of an unknowingly selfish man discovering that he is not selfish at all, a heartbroken mom that struggles to overcome her guilt from personal choices so she can, hopefully, and optimistically, dive into her own grief at the loss of her son, another mother so bent on false pride redemption, due to past motherly moments, that she unwittingly can't accept that her future choices are superficially solipsistic, and then, the most heartbreaking of all, a father and husband understanding his life in the moment of his death. Oh, how I cried with this one.
The last chapter reads like a Buddhist asking for forgiveness in the face of unwanted self-actualization, terrified that that the existentialists were right, yet strong enough to transcend this bleakness to find meaning in his existence before he doesn't have one. The last three pages narrate as a manic expression of human devotion. This is the closest I've ever come to reading the definition of love. According to Rossi, to love means to continue breathing in the face of tragedy as we imbibe our foolishness and fear and awe and gratitude of this world. This is what fills our lungs, and this is what dares us to find fault in how we live, which is the only way to understand why we live. Hopefully then, we can understand that the only reason we live, in spite of life's nonsense, is to love.
Holy goodness this was a great book. Read it.
January 3, 2021
"It was impossible to tell, he thought, what was real and what wasn't, and he thought that his problem was that he thought some moments were real and some weren't, that some moments appeared to be real and some appeared to be a dream that needed to be woken from."
February 10, 2020
Alan Rossi's Mountain Road, Late at Night:
There are so many superlatives I want to attach to this novel. Not only is it beautifully written and ingeniously crafted; it is unlike any book I've read in many years. Mr. Rossi's investigation of the human psyche is more incisive than I have witnessed in any other writer. Camus achieved something similar in works like The Myth of Sisyphus and "The Guest." So, too, Marilynne Robinson in Gilead, and Wendell Berry in much of his poetry, essays, and fiction. While I put Mr. Rossi in that august company of great writers, I would say also that Rossi's presentation of the at-once terrifying and wonderful paradox of life is unparalleled in any of my reading. One example--though similar examples are found throughout the novel--comes near the end of the book where Nicholas, believing he is near death, "suddenly saw a strange convergence of what he deemed the two competing sides of himself: he wanted to live, but he didn't want to experience any pain." The passage continues, reaching a stunning summation with "the abstraction was just reality itself, no abstraction at all, that wanting and avoiding were not two separate things, that death and life were not two separate things, that he would die." Such attention to the many paradoxes of the human experience is found throughout this marvelous work.
Secondly, Rossi's careful observations of the details of life--our own lives, the lives of others, the life of the natural world--remind me of Mary Oliver's attention to the natural world and our existential connection to it. As Oliver suggests in her poem, "Crossing the Swamp," we are both the observers of the elements of the swamp--the bough, the muck, the green leaf flowering--and parts of all those things; or rather, we are vitally connected to all those things we observe as we are crossing the swamp.
I do not know of any other living writer who is doing what Rossi is doing. His narrative style is utterly captivating and his characters are so intricately drawn that I found myself almost engaging them in conversation. Or rather, these characters spoke to me in the deepest and most intimate of ways...and I heard them with utter clarity.
Finally, this novel seems to me original and therefore unique (the latter a word I rarely use, as the concept of human uniqueness is existentially, theologically, and philosophically problematic for me). I suspect that in Alan Rossi, we are witnessing the literary birth (this is his first novel) of a writer who will pave a new way in fiction. Indeed, he forces his readers to think in new ways, to see ourselves and the world we inhabit in ways that will reorient us to the complexities of our own lives and to the profound, inimitable wonder of the myriad lives--natural and human--that surround us.
February 22, 2020
Alan Rossi’s Mountain Road Late at Night is a brilliant first novel, which deals with what William Faulkner spoke of in his Nobel acceptance speech “the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.” This debut will find a place in our literary tradition, our best writers’ textual conversations about what it means to be human. It is written in fluid stream of consciousness - much of it set in the beautiful backdrop of North Carolina’s gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains. In a photo journal about the setting written for editor Pan Macmillan, Mr. Rossi wrote that these are “old, old mountains mountains, rounded by time on a scale we can’t imagine, though we might be able to name it.” Polarities such as knowing but not knowing and fusion of western and eastern worldview are threaded through all elements of the novel. In the photo journal, he shares that he meditates silently for seven or eight hours for three or four days each year in a cabin that inspired the one where Nicholas, April, and their four year old son Jack lived before the couple was killed after a party late one night. (The photo journal is available at panmacmillan.com)
Nicholas and April left no will and so the question of which family member/s will raise Jack is the central conflict, which we see through the perspectives of four narrations. As they grapple with raw grief, we see that Nicholas’s brother Nathaniel, his mother Katherine, and April’s mother Tammy have vastly different perspectives on who is best suited to do that. Nathaniel struggles with his ensuing angst on page one “on the unasked but deeply felt question, what did the boy want and need? The answer was both too simple and too impossible to approach: Jack wanted his parents.” Nathaniel is an indecisive but good man. The prologue to the section from The Four Great Bodhisattva Vows is apt: “Beings are numberless, I vow to save them all....Enlightenment is unattainable, I vow to attain it fully.”
Polarity and paradox are, in fact, embodied in each character. We feel compassion for Katherine when she is pathetically consumed by self pity because she is aging and feels written off, as if “the universe has said thank you for your service.” And again when she cries for her young colleague Kylie Newman who has not yet experienced anything like the profound suffering she herself is living with the loss of her son Nicholas. Katherine knows that inevitably similar devastation is surely “coming for” Kylie, too.
Each character experiences simultaneous longing for connection and embrace of separateness as each of those is a conduit of both joy and pain. Tammy’s thoughts one night during her lonely cross country drive to Jack’s home in the Blue Ridge Mountains elucidate this. “We’re none of us going to the same place - that was what the car represented. Isolation and separateness...the valley below populated with tiny lights of so many separate lives, lives that would never really know one another, lives as distant as galaxies, separated by light years.”
The final devastating chapter is narrated by Nicholas between midnight and 6 AM as he is dying on a rainy, cold spring night: he is the epitome T.S. Eliot’s “infinitely gentle, infinitely suffering thing.” Its impossible not to deeply love him, this 21st century man so reminiscent of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha. The prologue from The True Dharma Eye, Case 81 asks, “How is it being in the midst of illumination?” And as Nicholas is wracked with unthinkable pain, his answer seems to be recollections of his and April’s quest to “live off the grid,” to be their best selves and to live with “immediacy.” He, in turn, questions whether this was mere delusion, but instead comes to understand that life and death are part of each other. That he is afraid to die but grateful for the marvelous experience of living. And finally that his love for Jack is his essence. The prose is poetic as he conjures thumbnails of his sons’ future: “ Jack forgetting them, Jack becoming Jack, Jack’s life moving in a slow bloom outward like a flower opening and all the people doing exactly as he and April had done...trying to be there for him.” And in the end, “fear and awe and foolishness and gratitude.... the first flashing blue lights lighted the treetops.” Illumination.
Mountain Road Late at Night “grieves on the universal bones” William Faulkner spoke of in his Nobel Prize speech. It is easily among the five best books I’ve ever read, what Faulkner would call a story of the human “spirit capable of compassion, sacrifice, and endurance.”
Nicholas and April left no will and so the question of which family member/s will raise Jack is the central conflict, which we see through the perspectives of four narrations. As they grapple with raw grief, we see that Nicholas’s brother Nathaniel, his mother Katherine, and April’s mother Tammy have vastly different perspectives on who is best suited to do that. Nathaniel struggles with his ensuing angst on page one “on the unasked but deeply felt question, what did the boy want and need? The answer was both too simple and too impossible to approach: Jack wanted his parents.” Nathaniel is an indecisive but good man. The prologue to the section from The Four Great Bodhisattva Vows is apt: “Beings are numberless, I vow to save them all....Enlightenment is unattainable, I vow to attain it fully.”
Polarity and paradox are, in fact, embodied in each character. We feel compassion for Katherine when she is pathetically consumed by self pity because she is aging and feels written off, as if “the universe has said thank you for your service.” And again when she cries for her young colleague Kylie Newman who has not yet experienced anything like the profound suffering she herself is living with the loss of her son Nicholas. Katherine knows that inevitably similar devastation is surely “coming for” Kylie, too.
Each character experiences simultaneous longing for connection and embrace of separateness as each of those is a conduit of both joy and pain. Tammy’s thoughts one night during her lonely cross country drive to Jack’s home in the Blue Ridge Mountains elucidate this. “We’re none of us going to the same place - that was what the car represented. Isolation and separateness...the valley below populated with tiny lights of so many separate lives, lives that would never really know one another, lives as distant as galaxies, separated by light years.”
The final devastating chapter is narrated by Nicholas between midnight and 6 AM as he is dying on a rainy, cold spring night: he is the epitome T.S. Eliot’s “infinitely gentle, infinitely suffering thing.” Its impossible not to deeply love him, this 21st century man so reminiscent of Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha. The prologue from The True Dharma Eye, Case 81 asks, “How is it being in the midst of illumination?” And as Nicholas is wracked with unthinkable pain, his answer seems to be recollections of his and April’s quest to “live off the grid,” to be their best selves and to live with “immediacy.” He, in turn, questions whether this was mere delusion, but instead comes to understand that life and death are part of each other. That he is afraid to die but grateful for the marvelous experience of living. And finally that his love for Jack is his essence. The prose is poetic as he conjures thumbnails of his sons’ future: “ Jack forgetting them, Jack becoming Jack, Jack’s life moving in a slow bloom outward like a flower opening and all the people doing exactly as he and April had done...trying to be there for him.” And in the end, “fear and awe and foolishness and gratitude.... the first flashing blue lights lighted the treetops.” Illumination.
Mountain Road Late at Night “grieves on the universal bones” William Faulkner spoke of in his Nobel Prize speech. It is easily among the five best books I’ve ever read, what Faulkner would call a story of the human “spirit capable of compassion, sacrifice, and endurance.”
February 12, 2020
How we deal with loss, how difficult yet beautiful life can be, how our minds wander are all presented in this complex novel.
Mountain Road Late at Night is about a family in the throes of grief following a horrific accident. Four year old Jack’s parents were killed in the accident and no will has been found. Family members grapple with who can best raise the little boy and who has the resources and the selflessness to do so. Those without a will may really want to reevaluate.
The novel is uniquely and ambitiously written in stream of consciousness allowing us to intimately know the thoughts and struggles of each of the characters through questions about the best guardianship of Jack, the angst of losing loved ones, and the monotony and beauty of every day life. As they approach these difficulties they reflect on their own lives in intimate and sometimes crushing detail. The novel is divided into four sections. The first three sections of the novel present Jack’s Uncle Nathanial; his paternal grandmother, Katherine; and his maternal grandmother, Tammy. All are flawed, realistic individuals who have weathered regrets and personal storms in the ongoingness of life.
(Spoiler alert…the ending is briefly discussed here)
The final section of the novel presents Jack’s father, Nicholas, as he fights to survive the car crash. We feel his emotional and physical pain and our angst increases as his futile struggle to free himself from the wreckage ensues and finally as he passes in and out of consciousness, and in and out of ruminations on his life. Ultimately Nicholas’s love for Jack and his thoughts about the boy’s future break our hearts while offering a father’s hope for a son’s future.
Mountain Road Late at Night is about a family in the throes of grief following a horrific accident. Four year old Jack’s parents were killed in the accident and no will has been found. Family members grapple with who can best raise the little boy and who has the resources and the selflessness to do so. Those without a will may really want to reevaluate.
The novel is uniquely and ambitiously written in stream of consciousness allowing us to intimately know the thoughts and struggles of each of the characters through questions about the best guardianship of Jack, the angst of losing loved ones, and the monotony and beauty of every day life. As they approach these difficulties they reflect on their own lives in intimate and sometimes crushing detail. The novel is divided into four sections. The first three sections of the novel present Jack’s Uncle Nathanial; his paternal grandmother, Katherine; and his maternal grandmother, Tammy. All are flawed, realistic individuals who have weathered regrets and personal storms in the ongoingness of life.
(Spoiler alert…the ending is briefly discussed here)
The final section of the novel presents Jack’s father, Nicholas, as he fights to survive the car crash. We feel his emotional and physical pain and our angst increases as his futile struggle to free himself from the wreckage ensues and finally as he passes in and out of consciousness, and in and out of ruminations on his life. Ultimately Nicholas’s love for Jack and his thoughts about the boy’s future break our hearts while offering a father’s hope for a son’s future.
April 19, 2020
Let me begin by saying that I don't typically read this type of book. My go to's are more Jodi Picoult, Kristen Hannah, Lisa Wingate- more traditional, easy to read, entertaining books. (Let's be honest, I have 2 small children and the only time I read is at night when everyone else is asleep!) The books premise is what drew me in; parents who passed away in a car crash, leaving their son behind. Every parent's worst nightmare. From the start, Rossi's writing challenged me. From the stream of consciousness type construction, to the focus I needed to really follow and understand what was happening. This book was not an easy, "just take me away at the end of the day" book, especially in the beginning. As I continued to navigate through Nathaniel's chapter, reading became easier, I allowed Rossi to take me where he wanted me to go, which was not what I expected. I fell in love with Nathaniel and his honesty about romanticizing this terrible situation- something all of us do in our worst moments. I couldn't stand Katherine, who was so stuck in an affair that I wanted to scream at her to HANG UP the phone and MOVE ON! I felt sorry for Tammy, who made mistakes in her past and was trying her best to amened them and I fell in love with Nicholas as he takes us through a heart wrenching recap of his last ever conversation with his wife. This book is beautifully and artfully written- it is not an easy read- but it is well worth the struggle!
February 9, 2020
Alan Rossi’s debut novel is a stunner. Mountain Road, Late at Night takes us on a journey through an event that most of us can’t (or won’t) imagine. Nicholas and April are parents to a 4-year-old, Jack. Sadly, they’re killed late at night, on a mountain road. Who will raise Jack? Rossi introduces us to the family members left behind to grapple with their loss – and ultimately, what is the best for Jack?
Written in four parts – starting with Nathaniel, Nicholas’s brother, I was pulled in and captivated at the honesty and the uncomfortable selfish thoughts and actions, so much that it made me contemplate each character and compare myself in each of them. This is a life event that few are ever faced with, so Rossi’s intuitive dive into the male and female psyche is impressive. The story he wove made me reflect on the possibilities – what would I do, how would I respond? There’s dark and light in each of them, Alan Rossi expertly carried us through each one. I would cheer for one, curse the other, then embrace them all.
The last chapter sealed it for me. I was literally on the edge, the edge of feeling despair for Nicholas, hope, fear and maybe acceptance. I am still thinking and processing this book, and it will stay with me. After all, it could happen to one of us.
Written in four parts – starting with Nathaniel, Nicholas’s brother, I was pulled in and captivated at the honesty and the uncomfortable selfish thoughts and actions, so much that it made me contemplate each character and compare myself in each of them. This is a life event that few are ever faced with, so Rossi’s intuitive dive into the male and female psyche is impressive. The story he wove made me reflect on the possibilities – what would I do, how would I respond? There’s dark and light in each of them, Alan Rossi expertly carried us through each one. I would cheer for one, curse the other, then embrace them all.
The last chapter sealed it for me. I was literally on the edge, the edge of feeling despair for Nicholas, hope, fear and maybe acceptance. I am still thinking and processing this book, and it will stay with me. After all, it could happen to one of us.
March 16, 2020
Mountain Road, Late at Night is a heart-wrenching novel that explores the agonizing decision of who should raise a four year old boy after his parents die in a car accident. Written from the point of view of three of the remaining family members, each voice sounds incredibly authentic. You feel their immense grief and their anger and frustration as they face the insoluble decision about who should try to take the place of Jack’s parents.
The narration of each character allows the reader to watch as they struggle to understand the life choices that Jack’s parents made and as they ponder whether they are capable of carrying on the legacy left behind. Because these are the innermost thoughts, you see all of what it is to be human and to struggle to see our true selves and to try to determine if we are good enough or have done enough or if we can justify ourselves.
The final section is written from Jack’s father’s point of view and must be read in one sitting, mainly because you won’t be able to put it down.
This is an extremely powerful novel, beautifully written, that stays with you long after you finish reading.
The narration of each character allows the reader to watch as they struggle to understand the life choices that Jack’s parents made and as they ponder whether they are capable of carrying on the legacy left behind. Because these are the innermost thoughts, you see all of what it is to be human and to struggle to see our true selves and to try to determine if we are good enough or have done enough or if we can justify ourselves.
The final section is written from Jack’s father’s point of view and must be read in one sitting, mainly because you won’t be able to put it down.
This is an extremely powerful novel, beautifully written, that stays with you long after you finish reading.
March 14, 2020
‘Everyone was always thinking they knew the right way to live.’
Nicholas and April live in a remote cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains with their four-year-old son Jack. They’ve established their own lives, separate and different from their families. And then, one night, tragedy strikes. Nicholas and April are driving home from a party and die in a car crash.
Who will raise Jack?
‘What was real became unreal and what was unreal became real.’
Nicholas’s brother and sister in law, Nathaniel and Stefanie are willing, but are not sure that they are ready for the responsibility. Nicholas and Nathaniel’s parents, Katherine and David might have the financial resources, but their relationship is failing. April’s mother, Tammy, wants a chance to be a better parent, to make up for the mistakes she made as a single mother.
For the first three parts of the novel, we are in the minds of Nathaniel, Katherine and Tammy. Nathaniel and Stefanie are with Jack, Tammy is driving to Blue Ridge, and Katherine (who has taken a vow of silence) spends much of her time wallowing in guilt.
Nicholas and April have not left any instructions about Jack’s guardianship.
‘You understand that this is going to be a fight of some kind…’
I read the first three parts of this novel, trying to work out which of these relatives would be best placed to care for Jack. Decisions need to be made, but what about Jack? And why is it that so many of us, unwilling to consider our own mortality, have not made care arrangements for our children?
But it was the final part of this novel that moved me most. For these are Nicholas’s final hours, trapped in the car after the crash. Life is replayed, the consequences considered. But what about Jack?
This is a powerful novel and uncomfortable novel. Life can change (and end) in an instance.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Nicholas and April live in a remote cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains with their four-year-old son Jack. They’ve established their own lives, separate and different from their families. And then, one night, tragedy strikes. Nicholas and April are driving home from a party and die in a car crash.
Who will raise Jack?
‘What was real became unreal and what was unreal became real.’
Nicholas’s brother and sister in law, Nathaniel and Stefanie are willing, but are not sure that they are ready for the responsibility. Nicholas and Nathaniel’s parents, Katherine and David might have the financial resources, but their relationship is failing. April’s mother, Tammy, wants a chance to be a better parent, to make up for the mistakes she made as a single mother.
For the first three parts of the novel, we are in the minds of Nathaniel, Katherine and Tammy. Nathaniel and Stefanie are with Jack, Tammy is driving to Blue Ridge, and Katherine (who has taken a vow of silence) spends much of her time wallowing in guilt.
Nicholas and April have not left any instructions about Jack’s guardianship.
‘You understand that this is going to be a fight of some kind…’
I read the first three parts of this novel, trying to work out which of these relatives would be best placed to care for Jack. Decisions need to be made, but what about Jack? And why is it that so many of us, unwilling to consider our own mortality, have not made care arrangements for our children?
But it was the final part of this novel that moved me most. For these are Nicholas’s final hours, trapped in the car after the crash. Life is replayed, the consequences considered. But what about Jack?
This is a powerful novel and uncomfortable novel. Life can change (and end) in an instance.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
May 3, 2020
Mountain Road, Late at Night is achingly beautiful, haunting, and meditative. The final chapter has stayed with me for weeks now. This is one of the best books I have read in the last several years, and I couldn't recommend it enough.
February 6, 2021
Cleverly powerful.
That is what I'd describe this novel as.
A young couple, Nicholas and April, are tragically killed in a car accident on their way home from a party, left behind is their four year old son, Jack.
Who will become his guardian and set him on the right path now?
Split into four parts, this is a story that is poetically meaningful.
We get an insight how certain family members think and feel after such a loss. Those moments of uncertainty, guilt and grief.
First there is Nicholas’s brother, Nathaniel and his wife Stefanie, they don't have children of their own but are more than willing to step up.
Then there is Nicholas and Nathaniel’s parents, Katherine and David. Told more from Katherine's POV, have the resources to provide for their grandson but their marriage isn't as stable as it appears from to those looking in.
And finally we have Tammy - April's mum -she now wants the chance to change her past mistakes that she unfortunately made when she was a young, single mother to her now deceased story.
Each party have their reasons for why they should be the ones to take charge, to be the ones to make Jack's life as good as it can be.
There was such a realism to each part. The conversations, the thoughts and processes of each character. It was all so well observed.
Both logical and philosophical.
It was the last part of the story that really got me. I won't tell you who that part belongs to but just know that I cried, it was beyond emotional.
Simple in its delivery but intimate in the way it was worded. This is a detailed account of a family struggling, trying to come to terms with a different, unexpected way of life.
I felt so much. Sadness. Tragedy. But it was all wrapped up in words of regret and hope.
Thought provoking. Mountain Road, Late at Night is a unique and powerful novel.
That is what I'd describe this novel as.
A young couple, Nicholas and April, are tragically killed in a car accident on their way home from a party, left behind is their four year old son, Jack.
Who will become his guardian and set him on the right path now?
Split into four parts, this is a story that is poetically meaningful.
We get an insight how certain family members think and feel after such a loss. Those moments of uncertainty, guilt and grief.
First there is Nicholas’s brother, Nathaniel and his wife Stefanie, they don't have children of their own but are more than willing to step up.
Then there is Nicholas and Nathaniel’s parents, Katherine and David. Told more from Katherine's POV, have the resources to provide for their grandson but their marriage isn't as stable as it appears from to those looking in.
And finally we have Tammy - April's mum -she now wants the chance to change her past mistakes that she unfortunately made when she was a young, single mother to her now deceased story.
Each party have their reasons for why they should be the ones to take charge, to be the ones to make Jack's life as good as it can be.
There was such a realism to each part. The conversations, the thoughts and processes of each character. It was all so well observed.
Both logical and philosophical.
It was the last part of the story that really got me. I won't tell you who that part belongs to but just know that I cried, it was beyond emotional.
Simple in its delivery but intimate in the way it was worded. This is a detailed account of a family struggling, trying to come to terms with a different, unexpected way of life.
I felt so much. Sadness. Tragedy. But it was all wrapped up in words of regret and hope.
Thought provoking. Mountain Road, Late at Night is a unique and powerful novel.
February 10, 2020
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read this prior to publication.
Mountain Road, Late at Night tells the story of a young couple who have been in an accident on their way home from a party. Their car was found the morning after. Alice was dead at the scene and Nicholas died in hospital. We focus on those left behind.
Our key narrators are varied. First is the brother who had moved into the family home to care for the orphaned son, Jack. He reflects on the experience since the accident and what it means for the various family members left behind. Then we have the mother who has taken a vow of silence since the accident but who is also living with the guilt of an affair. Next is the mother-in-law driving across America to atone for her failures as a mother to take her grandchild. All three are inherently selfish and pay no thought to what is best for Jack. There was little to like about any of them.
The last section is from the viewpoint of Nicholas, the driver of the car that crashed. We see him come to consciousness and examine the reality of his situation. We learn what lead to the crash and we see his fight to survive, though this is ultimately futile.
While the idea was interesting I found this a hard one to like. I felt little empathy with the characters and the one I wanted to know more about, Jack, was given no voice.
Mountain Road, Late at Night tells the story of a young couple who have been in an accident on their way home from a party. Their car was found the morning after. Alice was dead at the scene and Nicholas died in hospital. We focus on those left behind.
Our key narrators are varied. First is the brother who had moved into the family home to care for the orphaned son, Jack. He reflects on the experience since the accident and what it means for the various family members left behind. Then we have the mother who has taken a vow of silence since the accident but who is also living with the guilt of an affair. Next is the mother-in-law driving across America to atone for her failures as a mother to take her grandchild. All three are inherently selfish and pay no thought to what is best for Jack. There was little to like about any of them.
The last section is from the viewpoint of Nicholas, the driver of the car that crashed. We see him come to consciousness and examine the reality of his situation. We learn what lead to the crash and we see his fight to survive, though this is ultimately futile.
While the idea was interesting I found this a hard one to like. I felt little empathy with the characters and the one I wanted to know more about, Jack, was given no voice.
February 16, 2021
Characters in varying crucibles of living, selfs transitioning, egos facing fallings and pitfalls, an “existential crisis” held together and divided with aspects of love, a tale after the tragedy, a tragic car accident one day in a “Mountain Road, Late One Night.” What death does and things that need to be done with loss, the complexities and that fierce pull of blood and kin all contained within with deeply careful crafted prose.
The rural isolation and freedom at the same time with love and death in a tug between the four voices, the family, and how it affected their viewpoints.
The whole tale comes to a close with a poignant and powerful chapter juxtaposing the reader in the minutes of the centre of the tragedy with previous revolving after the tragedy.
This was a powerful meditation on grief and loss, love, family dynamics and rural life with an eye on a few souls and hearts trying to comprehend life and death.
Review with Excerpts @ https://more2read.com/review/mountain-road-late-at-night-by-alan-rossi/
The rural isolation and freedom at the same time with love and death in a tug between the four voices, the family, and how it affected their viewpoints.
The whole tale comes to a close with a poignant and powerful chapter juxtaposing the reader in the minutes of the centre of the tragedy with previous revolving after the tragedy.
This was a powerful meditation on grief and loss, love, family dynamics and rural life with an eye on a few souls and hearts trying to comprehend life and death.
Review with Excerpts @ https://more2read.com/review/mountain-road-late-at-night-by-alan-rossi/
August 19, 2025
Such a beautiful novel— every section contains a rich emotional world within itself.
February 26, 2020
I initially put this one aside after starting it because I couldn't really get into it, but I went back to it and tried again. I did enjoy this one, the writing is really detailed and puts across the atmosphere so well, also just the subject matter alone is enough to deliver an emotional and life affirming read. Exploring the feelings of each character here was so well done, and made for an interesting look at grief and how life moves forward after a tragedy.
Thank you to the publisher for my copy.
Thank you to the publisher for my copy.
February 21, 2020
I really wasn't sure what to make of this book. I liked the idea behind it, it was interesting and thought provoking. Dedicated chapters for each of the players in the story.
Their thoughts, were jumbled and confused, as you would expect in a time of grief and this was captured beautifully. Just perhaps a bit too in depth got me when I didn't really feel I could connect with any of the characters.
Their thoughts, were jumbled and confused, as you would expect in a time of grief and this was captured beautifully. Just perhaps a bit too in depth got me when I didn't really feel I could connect with any of the characters.
February 16, 2020
Skimmed so much, but gave up half way. Did anybody find a resolution?
March 14, 2020
2 stars
Holy boredom, skimmed through so much of this. A few 5 star reviews but was not for me :(
Holy boredom, skimmed through so much of this. A few 5 star reviews but was not for me :(
March 24, 2021
One night a couple suffer a fatal car crash, leaving their four year old son without parents. His uncle Nathaniel, and Nathaniel’s wife Stephanie, look after the boy in the first days of him being orphaned, but should they be the ones to now raise him, or should someone else in the family become his new parents?
This is such a moving and deep story which made me very emotional when reading especially towards the end. Jack is the child who ends up parentless and his uncle and aunt seem like the logical choice to become his new guardians, but there are problems in the extended family, and not everyone believes that they should be his new parents. There are only four chapters or sections in this whole book, each following one of the family members involved. The first chapter follows Nathaniel as he comes to terms with the death of his brother and deals with the thoughts and feelings that arise from losing a loved one as well as thinking of Jack’s future.
The book isn’t a fast paced read and in fact the writing style is quite different from what I’m used to. There are long descriptions and long paragraphs that can sometimes span several pages. There isn’t any direct conversation and instead each chapter is told, in the third person perspective, as if you are witnessing the constantly changing thoughts that go on in the mind when something devastating happens. Any speech that happens is shown to be a part of that characters thoughts rather than a separate thing.
Nathaniel’s thoughts switch to different things, from the present moment to the past, to thoughts of what some people in the town are thinking or saying to each other. Despite my reservations at first about this style of writing, which feels slower and maybe less engaging at the start, I found myself slowly gripped by the beauty of the tale. Nathaniel’s mind is filled with many worries of what could happen as well as both happy and sad memories of the past. It shows perfectly the way in which the human mind can constantly change, especially when something so tragic happens, and I ended up finding this book difficult to put down the further I got into reading it.
We get an idea of what some of the characters are like through the perspectives of others but as you read on to those othercharacter’s chapters you then gain a new perspective on them, understanding maybe what others thought of them or realising that what the others perceive may be wrong. I actually found myself disliking and then liking diffierent characters and feeling their pain through the pages as I read. There are some beautiful and vivid descriptions of the world and the mountain home that Jack and his, now deceased, parents lived in. I love how these images of the place, the weather and the atmosphere of the different characters emotions just came to life uite vividly in my mind.
The story doesn’t take place across a large time period, in fact very little time passes and each chapter focuses more on the individual characters, their minds, emotions and thoughts rather than focusing on any action happening. These individuals tales were interesting to read and I ended up liking all the characters towards the end, but it wasn’t until the last chapter that I really felt so emotional and really moved by the story. I won’t say who the chapter focuses on or what happens but the last chapter is such a poignant and deep one. What goes through the mind of the last character and what they are physically going through is so heart-wrenching. It was so beautifully written although so much of it was sad, and yet the book’s overall ending is a satisfying and good one, and felt like a good ending to all that had happened in the story.
The book has just a few uses of the s and f swear words and a brief mention of sex but nothing really offensive. The story is one about death and there is some descrption of the way the parents died so I would be cautious if this is something you’d feel could upset you. Overall this is a lovely story and I really enjoyed reading it. It wasn’t as fast-paced as I’m used to and I found the long paragraphs and lack of speech quotations a little more difficult to read, but despite this I really did enjoy how beautifully written this was and how moving this story is. It’s a wonderful tale showing the true power that grief has on the thoughts and feelings of those affected by it, and what happens in the end is both sad and yet uplifting at the same time. A good but emotional read.
-Thanks to Picador for a free copy for review.
This is such a moving and deep story which made me very emotional when reading especially towards the end. Jack is the child who ends up parentless and his uncle and aunt seem like the logical choice to become his new guardians, but there are problems in the extended family, and not everyone believes that they should be his new parents. There are only four chapters or sections in this whole book, each following one of the family members involved. The first chapter follows Nathaniel as he comes to terms with the death of his brother and deals with the thoughts and feelings that arise from losing a loved one as well as thinking of Jack’s future.
The book isn’t a fast paced read and in fact the writing style is quite different from what I’m used to. There are long descriptions and long paragraphs that can sometimes span several pages. There isn’t any direct conversation and instead each chapter is told, in the third person perspective, as if you are witnessing the constantly changing thoughts that go on in the mind when something devastating happens. Any speech that happens is shown to be a part of that characters thoughts rather than a separate thing.
Nathaniel’s thoughts switch to different things, from the present moment to the past, to thoughts of what some people in the town are thinking or saying to each other. Despite my reservations at first about this style of writing, which feels slower and maybe less engaging at the start, I found myself slowly gripped by the beauty of the tale. Nathaniel’s mind is filled with many worries of what could happen as well as both happy and sad memories of the past. It shows perfectly the way in which the human mind can constantly change, especially when something so tragic happens, and I ended up finding this book difficult to put down the further I got into reading it.
We get an idea of what some of the characters are like through the perspectives of others but as you read on to those othercharacter’s chapters you then gain a new perspective on them, understanding maybe what others thought of them or realising that what the others perceive may be wrong. I actually found myself disliking and then liking diffierent characters and feeling their pain through the pages as I read. There are some beautiful and vivid descriptions of the world and the mountain home that Jack and his, now deceased, parents lived in. I love how these images of the place, the weather and the atmosphere of the different characters emotions just came to life uite vividly in my mind.
The story doesn’t take place across a large time period, in fact very little time passes and each chapter focuses more on the individual characters, their minds, emotions and thoughts rather than focusing on any action happening. These individuals tales were interesting to read and I ended up liking all the characters towards the end, but it wasn’t until the last chapter that I really felt so emotional and really moved by the story. I won’t say who the chapter focuses on or what happens but the last chapter is such a poignant and deep one. What goes through the mind of the last character and what they are physically going through is so heart-wrenching. It was so beautifully written although so much of it was sad, and yet the book’s overall ending is a satisfying and good one, and felt like a good ending to all that had happened in the story.
The book has just a few uses of the s and f swear words and a brief mention of sex but nothing really offensive. The story is one about death and there is some descrption of the way the parents died so I would be cautious if this is something you’d feel could upset you. Overall this is a lovely story and I really enjoyed reading it. It wasn’t as fast-paced as I’m used to and I found the long paragraphs and lack of speech quotations a little more difficult to read, but despite this I really did enjoy how beautifully written this was and how moving this story is. It’s a wonderful tale showing the true power that grief has on the thoughts and feelings of those affected by it, and what happens in the end is both sad and yet uplifting at the same time. A good but emotional read.
-Thanks to Picador for a free copy for review.
February 27, 2020
Nicholas and April live a life not in keeping with their family's views of normalcy. Quiet, peaceful, and isolated from the outside world, the family have been working on self-sufficiency and raising their young son Jack the way they wish to, without the trappings of materialism. Until one night April and Nicholas are killed in a car accident leaving Jack an orphan and needing some one to care for him.
Family members descend on the remote community, each motivated to care for Jack with their own intentions, each thinking they know what he needs. The reader gets a snapshot from Nathaniel, (Nicholas's brother), Katherine (Nicholas's mother), Tammy (April's mother) and finally, and the most poignant snapshot of all, from a dying Nicholas.
I'm largely unfamiliar with streams of consciousness in writing, so Mountain Road was something entirely different for me. Rambling descriptions and thoughts without the inclusion of actual conversation was an adjustment. Paragraphs would sometimes be a page or page and a half long. Each snapshot depicted that character's thoughts, feelings and reactions, a continuous flow of information. Nathanial's and Nicholas's points of view were like bookends for the story, where it started, and sadly, where it ended with Nicholas’s life painfully but slowly ebbing away. It's a powerful story of things left unsaid, how tragedy impacts individuals differently and how loss is manifested.
This was a confronting read, and whilst I struggled early on with the narrative I very much appreciated it's complexity. Thank you to Picador and Pan Macmillan Australia for a gifted copy of this book for the purposes of a review. Thew views expressed are my own.
This review also appears on my instagram page @aplace_inthesun.
Family members descend on the remote community, each motivated to care for Jack with their own intentions, each thinking they know what he needs. The reader gets a snapshot from Nathaniel, (Nicholas's brother), Katherine (Nicholas's mother), Tammy (April's mother) and finally, and the most poignant snapshot of all, from a dying Nicholas.
I'm largely unfamiliar with streams of consciousness in writing, so Mountain Road was something entirely different for me. Rambling descriptions and thoughts without the inclusion of actual conversation was an adjustment. Paragraphs would sometimes be a page or page and a half long. Each snapshot depicted that character's thoughts, feelings and reactions, a continuous flow of information. Nathanial's and Nicholas's points of view were like bookends for the story, where it started, and sadly, where it ended with Nicholas’s life painfully but slowly ebbing away. It's a powerful story of things left unsaid, how tragedy impacts individuals differently and how loss is manifested.
This was a confronting read, and whilst I struggled early on with the narrative I very much appreciated it's complexity. Thank you to Picador and Pan Macmillan Australia for a gifted copy of this book for the purposes of a review. Thew views expressed are my own.
This review also appears on my instagram page @aplace_inthesun.
April 30, 2025
What irritated me the most was as another goodread author described as unfiltered thoughts.
There was no chapters in this book just a book broken into four characters. Three dealing with the grief of losing a couple who die in a car accident over in a remote village, leaving their child behind to live without parents.
The characters faced the prospects of who will look after the child, can I look after this child to make up for not looking after my own child when i needed to? I will never get to see my child grow up as i taste the saltiness on blood dripping from my forehead.
Im not saying it was a bad book but it was exhausting as i wasnt sure where to put to put down the book as i could not read it in one sitting even though its only 255 pages long. Maybe having chapters within the characters or just obvious paragraphs would have helped. Four stars out of five but because of the character nicholas, which rounded off this novel.
There was no chapters in this book just a book broken into four characters. Three dealing with the grief of losing a couple who die in a car accident over in a remote village, leaving their child behind to live without parents.
The characters faced the prospects of who will look after the child, can I look after this child to make up for not looking after my own child when i needed to? I will never get to see my child grow up as i taste the saltiness on blood dripping from my forehead.
Im not saying it was a bad book but it was exhausting as i wasnt sure where to put to put down the book as i could not read it in one sitting even though its only 255 pages long. Maybe having chapters within the characters or just obvious paragraphs would have helped. Four stars out of five but because of the character nicholas, which rounded off this novel.
April 17, 2020
Do you like a book that connects you to characters in a way that keeps them with you long after the book is over, as if you had spent hours getting to know them personally? Do you like an author that makes you stop reading because the sentence you just read MUST be reread and savored? Do you like a book that leaves you enlightened in some important way? Alan Rossi, in his first novel, created that for me. The story line is a good and complicated one, but it is the journey the reader takes getting to know each character’s place in the story that makes this read such a special one. Rossi reminds you why writing is truly an art form. I am looking forward to more of his art.
June 16, 2021
Some things about this book were great. I liked the story told from 4 perspectives, the central narrative was interesting and the slow reveal of the character of each person was also quite an interesting technique. But the internal monologue was unbearably realistic. It was so self absorbed and monotonous and exhausting. But also clever. Even though it functioned as a slow reveal of the character and motivations of each person, it was what I imagine being stuck inside the head of a person must be like. An overthinking type of person, which all the people in this story were, and ugh, just ugh...
June 19, 2020
This story deals with the dilemma of which family member will become the guardian of a 4 year old boy when his parents are killed in an automobile accident. The 4 sections of the book covers the viewpoint of 3 family members and the father while he is dying. I've never read a book quite like this. I felt as though I was experiencing the subconscious of each individual. I won't forget this novel.
May 20, 2020
Found the concept of this book very different to my usual readings !
The brothers different lifestyles etc were very interesting (especially Nicolas’s last thoughts for me very moving )
A different approach to grief very powerful, each character with such different reactions ie guilt , angst etc
A beautiful work of literature !
The brothers different lifestyles etc were very interesting (especially Nicolas’s last thoughts for me very moving )
A different approach to grief very powerful, each character with such different reactions ie guilt , angst etc
A beautiful work of literature !
May 31, 2021
I loved this book. The title just drew me in from the beginning. This book was a nice fast paced read that makes you want to read on. To find out what happen to the young lad after his parents are killed in an accident. Will the god parents keep him or will the grandmother win i will let you read it to find out
January 13, 2026
3'5
después de leer our last year (OLY) este no es tan genial. da muchas vueltas sobre el mismo punto y se hace algo repetitivo. estira mucho escenas que podrían ser más cortas. peroooo retrata muy bien diferentes voces y las hace creíbles, muy humano y muy dulce. un libro necesario para llegar a OLY que he disfrutado pero se que no es su obra más brillante.
después de leer our last year (OLY) este no es tan genial. da muchas vueltas sobre el mismo punto y se hace algo repetitivo. estira mucho escenas que podrían ser más cortas. peroooo retrata muy bien diferentes voces y las hace creíbles, muy humano y muy dulce. un libro necesario para llegar a OLY que he disfrutado pero se que no es su obra más brillante.
April 8, 2020
Great idea and liked the individual characters having their chapter. I found the writing poor and confusing. Sentences too long and no punctuation. I found this boring and poorly constructed. Skimmed through it.
March 2, 2021
An unbelievable first novel which makes the reader reflect on the powerful forces awaiting everyone. Considering how one would handle choices which death could force upon you kept me awake many a night.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews