Highway Blue is an impressive and thoroughly enjoyable début. Anne Marie is in San Padua, trying to forget about her ex-husband, Cal and build a new life for herself. She married Cal when she was 19, but then he left her not long after and she hasn't seen him in years. Then he turns up suddenly and they have a drink together. Later that night a gun is fired and they go on the run. Ailsa McFarlane's fantastic literary novella packs a powerful punch. Though dark in tone, I liked the author's style of writing and her tremendous characterisation, particularly of Anne Marie as she ponders her life. There is a well-portrayed feeling of rootlessness and a casual drifting into doomed romance, all the while continuing an edgy on-the-run narrative. A piece of engaging, escapist reading that many will find appealing. I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Harvill Secker via NetGalley and this review is my unbiased opinion.

Highway Blue was rich in description, especially for such a relatively short book (192 pages). I could see the story unrolling in my head as I read. It’s almost a modern day Bonnie and Clyde - except there aren’t multiple deaths or bank robberies! Anne Marie is trying to forget about her estranged husband, Cal, and when he turns up out of nowhere, it comes as a shock. He brings trouble with him, a man ends up dead, and they find themselves on the run. It seemed to me that Anne Marie is in a state of shock throughout this whole novel. Will they make it to safety before they’re caught? I was hoping that Anne Marie would leave Cal and make her own way. At the beginning he clearly wants money from her to solve whatever problem he has made for himself and is very disappointed when he realises she has nothing. Despite its darkness, and it was relentless at times, I really enjoyed this.

Highway Blue by Ailsa McFarlane is an interesting story told in a lyrical, mesmeric style. The writing is delightfully sensuous and expressive, full of colours, sounds and smells. Anne-Marie is still a young woman deeply missing her mother who died when she was a child and regretting other decisions she has made so far in her relatively short existence. On this journey she makes with her ex-husband Cal who turns up out of the blue after leaving her two years previously, Anne-Marie gets an opportunity to consider her life from a distance which helps her make better decisions. Although similar to other road trip stories, I feel Anne-Marie is making a journey of self discovery alongside the obvious physical one.

Anne Marie married Cal at age 19 and a year to the day later he walked out. It was unannounced though, as we’ll learn later, not totally unexpected. In the two years that have since passed she’s lived with four girls who aren’t her friends and scraped up enough money to survive by tending bar and walking other people’s dogs. Then Cal reappears, he’s in trouble and about to draw Anne Marie in neck deep too. A violent encounter with a money lender who’s come to collect a debt sends them both scurrying out of town. They manage to hitchhike their way to a friend of Cal’s from whom they scrounge a beat up old car. They’re on the run but unsure where they’re going. And as they travel Anne Marie, through whose eyes we view this story, starts to unpick her thoughts about her marriage, her previous life with a mother who died when she was fifteen years old and on this reacquaintance with Cal. Set in a mythical place that might somewhere in the American West, this is largely a road trip tale with the pair heading in a southerly direction towards the place Anne Marie’s mother was born. Tight for money they sleep in the car or cadge a sofa when they can, meeting a ragtag group of people as they go. The tone of the whole thing is pretty dark, the atmosphere threatening and dingy throughout. The writing is sparse and, in truth, the plotline is pretty thin too. The attraction, then, is in the writing and the characterisation – particularly of Anne Marie, who I liked a lot. There are some great descriptions of places and people here and some memorable lines as Ann Marie ruminates on her life and the people she’s been close to, particularly Cal. This first book by a new young writer shows talent and promise. I suspect she’ll write better books in time, but I think this one is still worth catching. Three and a half stars rounded up to four, for me.

Anne Marie is working at a bar by night and walks dogs by day, trying to build a new life for herself and forget about her ex-husband Cal. She marries him aged 19 and he disappears a year later then out of the blue he turns up several years on. What does he want? Why is he back? Unfortunately he brings disaster to her door and they have to take to ‘Highway Blue’ to escape the consequences. I really like this short novel especially the way it’s written which is extremely simply, it’s stripped back and with no unnecessary frills. I equally like that we’re either inside Anne Marie’s head or she’s having a dialogue with us. Despite its simplicity you get a strong sense of character and you see Cal for what he is and so, finally, does she. She’s changed, she’s not prepared to just accept although her youthful naivety does come across at the beginning as her thought processes unfurl she’s really starting to see him for what he is and her idealism has gone. She’s an introspective deep thinker with much more substance than Cal, she’s not necessarily a barrel of laughs, far from it as she can be melancholic. Her mind focuses on the tiny things to stop herself from thinking about bigger issues and she makes apt and profound comparisons to her situation. There’s an other worldly aura created, it’s almost dreamlike and a bit surreal in places and in others it’s sheer chaos which makes for an interesting comparison. The chaos involves some fearful moments of panic which causes feelings of claustrophobia enveloping her. As they pass through areas and places (we assume Southern California although it’s unspecific) there are some good and colourful descriptions of the journey which gives her the opportunity to reflect and make some welcome decisions. Overall, this is a clever debut which is principally about the growth of self knowledge and understanding, it’s about growing up and confronting the past and moving on.