In his sophisticated debut novel, T.L. Hughes draws on his New England upbringing in an Irish Catholic family to tell the story of his main character, Mike Hogan’s, cross country venture from Southern California back to the small mill town where he grew up. 

The lure of the road reunites Mike and his two travel companions with old friends, family, and acquaintances. As the three friends bounce from place to place, freeloading across the expanses of beautiful America, they see life again through those they once knew and loved and through new friends and experiences. In the process of it all, they rediscover the goodness within themselves that was always there.

Searching For Paradise is a coming of age story filled with vivid imagery and resonating musical references to the artists and songs of the 1970s and 1980s. Above all else it is a love story of great depth and beauty.

"While 'Searching for Paradise' by T. L. Hughes comes to us as a highway story, the book is as much about the elemental pull of tribal roots as it is about the lure of the road." - Paul Marion, The Lowell Sun

"Beautifully written and engagingly presented, SEARCHING FOR PARADISE is a road trip where the characters drive back to their roots in search of where they came from, but seek to transcend their past lives in search of something more exciting, more attainable, yet more liberating." ~IndieReader

"Tom Wolfe's admonition that 'you can't go home again' is belayed by the experiences in Searching for Paradise. Sure, you can go home again - and re-view it from the vantage point of new insights and life experiences.  Connections between past and present are well done in a story that reveals just where this paradise is to be found." - D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review