# Read the first page of The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles Read the opening of The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles free, no signup. In 1954, a newly freed teen and his brother set off cross-country. - Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/the-lincoln-highway-amor-towles - Genre: Literary fiction - Year: 2021 - ISBN: 9780735222373 - Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9780735222373&s=read-page - Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9780735222373 - Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9780735222373 ## The opening JUNE 12, 1954—The drive from Salina to Morgen was three hours, and for much of it, Emmett hadn't said a word. For the first sixty miles or so, Warden Williams had made an effort at friendly conversation. He had told a few stories about his childhood back East and asked a few questions about Emmett's on the farm. But this was the last they'd be together, and Emmett didn't see much sense in going into all of that now. So when they crossed the border from Kansas into Nebraska and the warden turned on the radio, Emmett stared out the window at the prairie, keeping his thoughts to himself. When they were five miles south of town, Emmett pointed through the windshield. —You take that next right. It'll be the white house about four miles down the road. The warden slowed his car and took the turn. They drove past the McKusker place, then the Andersens’ with its matching pair of large red barns. A few minutes later they could see Emmett’s house standing beside a small grove of oak trees about thirty yards from the road. To Emmett, all the houses in this part of the country looked like they’d been dropped from the sky. The Watson house just looked like it’d had a rougher landing. The roof line sagged on either side of the chimney and the window frames were slanted just enough that half the windows wouldn’t quite open and the other half wouldn’t quite shut. In another moment, they’d be able to see how the paint had been shaken right off the clapboard. But when they got within a hundred feet of the driveway, the warden pulled to the side of the road. —Emmett, he said, with his hands on the wheel, before we drive in there’s something I’d like to say. That Warden Williams had something to say didn’t come as much of a surprise. When Emmett had first arrived at Salina, the warden was a Hoosier named Ackerly, who wasn’t inclined to put into words a piece of advice that could be delivered more efficiently with a stick. But Warden Williams was a modern man with a master’s degree and good intentions and a framed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt hanging behind his desk. He had notions that he’d gathered from books and experience, and he had plenty of words at his disposal to turn them into counsel. —For some of the young men who come to Salina, he began, whatever series of events has brought them under our sphere of influence is just the beginning of a long journey through a life of trouble. They’re boys who were never given much sense of right or wrong as children and who see little reason for learning it now. Whatever values or ambitions we try to instill in them will, in all likelihood, be cast aside the moment they walk out from under our gaze. Sadly, for these boys it is only a matter of time before they find themselves in the correctional facility at Topeka, or worse. The warden turned to Emmett. —What I’m getting at, Emmett, is that you are not one of them. ## Books with a similar feel - [The Good Lord Bird by James McBride](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-good-lord-bird-james-mcbride.md) - [Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler](https://uncovered.ink/read/redhead-by-the-side-of-the-road-anne-tyler.md) - [Pastoralia by George Saunders](https://uncovered.ink/read/pastoralia-george-saunders.md) - [Saturday by Ian McEwan](https://uncovered.ink/read/saturday-ian-mcewan.md) - [Erasure by Percival Everett](https://uncovered.ink/read/erasure-percival-everett.md) - [The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-lowland-jhumpa-lahiri.md) --- Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.