Author Talk: Melanie McCabe on "Road Longer Than Memory"

Arlington poet Melanie McCabe makes her fiction debut with a thriller steeped in local history

Join local author Melanie McCabe at Mary Riley Styles Public Library for a discussion of her debut novel Road Longer Than Memory!

Out June 2, the book takes place in Arlington during the controversial construction of Interstate 66. It follows out-of-work teacher Sara Barlow as she returns home in search of a job and a clean slate. When a chance encounter brings back traumatic memories from her youth, she is forced to confront the mystery surrounding a classmate's death and her own complicity.

In addition to discussing her writing, McCabe will shed light on the history of I-66 and its effect on Arlington and her life. A book signing will follow with copies of Road Longer Than Memory available for purchase from Bards Alley.

RSVP for free through Mary Riley Styles Public Library here: mrspl.org/event/draft-june-author-talk-melanie-mccabe-32013

ABOUT THE BOOK

After a failed relationship and an unsettled teaching career, Sara Barlow returns to her childhood home in Arlington, Virginia, hoping for a fresh start. But when she applies for a job at her old high school, a chance glimpse into the gymnasium shakes her to the core—she spots the man she suspects was involved in a classmate’s violent death a decade earlier.

Haunted by the past, Sara confronts the memories she’s spent years trying to suppress: her sister Suzanne’s fatal car crash, her secret summer with the reckless Devlin Barrie, and the anonymous 911 call she made after witnessing what she believes was a murder. As the construction of Interstate 66 physically fractures her community, Sara grapples with emotional fault lines of her own—guilt, silence, and buried truth.

Set against the backdrop of suburban upheaval in the 1970s and ’80s, Road Longer Than Memory is a compelling story of memory, reckoning, and the cost of what we leave unsaid.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melanie McCabe is the award-winning author of four poetry collections and a memoir. Road Longer Than Memory is her debut novel. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, The Georgia Review, The Massachusetts Review, Shenandoah, and other national publications. A lifelong Virginian, she taught high school English and creative writing in Arlington for over two decades.