“What truly makes Strout exceptional . . . is the perfect balance she achieves between the tides of story and depths of feeling.”—Chicago Tribune
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Good Housekeeping
Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride.
But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed the brothers’ relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.
This edition includes an original essay by Elizabeth Strout about the origins of The Burgess Boys.
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Creators
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Awards
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Release date
March 26, 2013 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780812984613
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780812984613
- File size: 4088 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
February 4, 2013
Strout’s follow-up to her 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner Olive Kitteridge links a trio of middle-aged siblings with a group of Somali immigrants in a familiar story about isolation within families and communities. The Burgesses have troubles both public and secret: sour, divorced Susan, who stayed in the family’s hometown of Shirley Falls, Maine, with her teenage son Zachary; big-hearted Bob, who feels guilty about their father’s fatal car accident; and celebrity defense lawyer Jim, who moved to Brooklyn, N.Y. When Zachary hurls a bloody pig’s head into a Somali mosque during Ramadan, fragile connections between siblings, the Somalis, and other Shirley Falls residents are tested. Jim’s bullish meddling into Zach’s trial hurts rather than helps, and Susan’s inability to act without her brothers’ advice cements her role as the weakest link (and least interesting character). Finally, when Jim’s neurotic wife, Helen, witnesses the depth of her husband’s indifference and Bob’s ex-wife, Pam, finds the security of her new life in Manhattan tested by nostalgia for Shirley Falls, Zach’s fate—and that of the Somalis—becomes an unfortunate afterthought. Strout excels in constructing an intricate web of circuitous family drama, which makes for a powerful story, but the familiarity of the novel’s questions and a miraculously disentangled denouement drain the story of depth. Agent: Lisa Bankoff, ICM. -
Library Journal
December 1, 2012
As in her Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteredge, Strout promises to make everyday small-town life luminous and absorbing. Brothers who have fled upstate Shirley Falls for New York City return when their sister needs help with her troubled teenage son.
Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly
May 27, 2013
Brothers Jim and Bob, both lawyers, revisit their roots when sister Susan beckons them back to Shirley Falls, Maine, to help deal with her son’s legal shenanigans. But returning home means stirring up all the issues and emotions that the three siblings have worked to ignore for years. Cassandra Campbell uses rich narration, stellar timing, and a knack for emphasizing just the right words at the right moments to squeeze every ounce of dramatic tension from Strout’s novel. She modulates her tone and pace to keep listeners engaged, creating believable and distinguished character voices. Finally, Campbell invokes Maine accents sparingly—using them only when the text demands it and successfully avoiding the trap of caricature. A Random House hardcover. -
Library Journal
April 15, 2013
The Burgess siblings are in disarray. Decades earlier, the "boys," Jim and Bob, fled their childhood home of Shirley Falls, ME, to practice law in New York City. Jim is a flashy uptown defense attorney who once won a high-profile celebrity murder case. His meek younger brother, Bob, the ultimate agent of conciliation, is a Legal Aid lawyer. When Bob's twin sister, Susan, calls from Shirley Falls to say her odd teenage son, Zachary, has thrown a pig's head into the mosque of the community's Somali population, an unspeakably offensive violation of the Muslim faith, the brothers scramble to throw down legal cover. Events spin out of control, Zachary's crime goes national, tensions rise, and charges against the boy escalate. Meanwhile, the abrasive relationship among Jim, Bob, and Susan erodes as the shattering moment of their childhood--the death of their father, which was blamed on four-year-old Bob--bubbles to the surface. VERDICT Pulitzer Prize-winner Strout (Olive Kitteridge) takes the reader on a surprising journey of combative filial love and the healing powers of the truth. [See Prepub Alert, 11/12/12.]--Beth Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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