Ten Miles One Way by Patrick Downes (review)

Twenty-year-old Nest just nearly killed both herself and her loving boyfriend Q by driving them into a tree. Now she’s unconscious and Q decides to use his recovery time to write about a day three years earlier, when he was invited along on one of Nest’s epic walks through the city. Nest’s narration, as told by Q, is almost stream of consciousness, and she’s clearly deep in a manic phase (both she and her father are diagnosed as having bipolar disorder). Q’s not so blinded by love that he can’t see how Nest’s illness makes her selfish, but he’s clearly in it for the long haul with her, whether or not she always wants him to be. Downes adroitly balances both perspectives here, pushing readers to understand Nest through her own words, fears, obsessions, and brilliant observations even while they may be judging her because of the car accident and her treatment of Q. What’s most interesting is that underneath the journey and the mental illness and even the harrowing crash, this is at the core a love story, one that isn’t always pretty or even healthy but is absolutely memorable.