Eva Reddy’s Trip of a Lifetime by Fiona McKenzie Kekic

Mrs Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year meets The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Where’d You Go Bernadette in this witty novel about coming of (middle) age and discovering that you don’t have to be who you’ve become.

How hard can it be to find a pair of Bollywood-dancing septuagenarians?

When Eva Moore wakes up on her fiftieth birthday, her drab middle-class life immediately starts to unravel. First, she receives an anonymous Facebook message claiming her husband is having an affair. Next, she is restructured out of her job by her obnoxiously young boss. Then, just when she thinks her life can’t get any worse, her elderly parents wilfully go missing from their group tour of India. All they’ve left behind is an increasingly bizarre series of TikTok videos.

Eager to put some distance between herself and her failing marriage, Eva undertakes a rescue mission, determined to save her parents from certain disaster. She wants to find them. But what Eva really needs is to find herself. If she can do that, she might get a second chance at life and love – and, along the way, become an inspiration to anyone who fears their best days are behind them …

Witty, warm and acutely observed – a book club book from an extraordinary new Australian voice about taking life, and adventure, by the horns. A funny, defiant shout into the face of society’s expectations around ageing.