Coming of Age Family Story

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob escaped from their Maine hometown  for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, 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 sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the  brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys is Elizabeth Strout’s newest and perhaps most astonishing work of literary art.