Roadwork

Roadwork by Stephen King, published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, is a psychological novel that follows Barton George Dawes, a middle-aged man whose life begins to unravel when a highway construction project requires the demolition of both his home and the laundry business where he works. As Dawes becomes increasingly unable to cope with the loss of his family, his routine, and the world he knows, he resists the forces of change with growing desperation, leading him toward isolation, obsession, and ultimately a tragic confrontation. Exploring themes of grief, alienation, modernization, and personal identity, Roadwork is one of King’s most realistic and emotionally intense early novels.