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When Lillian and Audrey hatch a plot to escape from Tranquil Meadows Nursing Home, “borrow” a car, and spend their hastily planned vacation time driving to destinations west, they aren’t fully aware of the challenges they will face. All they know is that the warm days of August call to them, and the need to escape the daily routines and humiliations of nursing home life has become overwhelming. But their trip is almost over before it begins, until they meet up with the unsuspecting Rayne, a young hitchhiker.

How do you cope when your husband of more than 30 years announces he’s leaving — and you didn’t see it coming? Ellen is blindsided by her husband’s request for a divorce and the news that everything she thought they jointly owned is in his name.Depressed and defeated, her life spirals out of control, until she impulsively decides to buy a bike and attempt the journey of a lifetime. Nervous and tenuous at first, she eventually gains strength and confidence and sets her sights on riding to California.Just as she determines this is something she is really going to do, tragedy strikes.

Paul is asked to drive his wife's 93-year-old Grandpa "Bud" all the way from Calgary to his retirement trailer in Mesa, Arizona. Paul hopes to find strange, roadside diners and sleep out under the stars. Bud wants Denny's and Motel 6. Paul and Bud spend five days together, navigating the predictable turnoffs on the Interstate while discovering their need for each other, sharing their lives and experiences, their hopes and dreams. This will be Bud's final year in Mesa, and Paul is his chauffeur.

"Legendary war photographer Vivienne Pink has five days to photograph servicemen about to deploy for active combat. Racing to meet her deadline, she heads to Las Vegas, where she'll capture images of men who may die the next day--and where she'll confront an abuser from her past to force a reckoning. Accompanied by her husband, a celebrated novelist, and her best friend, a former CIA spook, Vivienne heads out into the Nevada desert in search of adrenaline, vengeance and the perfect shot.

In this classic road novel, Jacques Poulin tells the story of a man in search of his brother. The geographical journey — through Detroit, into Chicago, on to St. Louis, along the Oregon Trail and into California — becomes a metaphor for the exploration of the history of the French in North America.