We are the Brennans
Tracey Lange
In the vein of Maggie O’Farrell and John Boyne, Tracey Lange’s critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller We Are the Brennans explores the staying power of shame - and the redemptive power of love – in an Irish Catholic family torn apart by secrets.
Some secrets you keep from your family. And some secrets you keep for your family.
When twenty-nine-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, bruised and battered after a drunk-driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. But it’s not easy. She deserted them all – and her high school sweetheart – five years before, with little explanation, and they’ve got questions.
Sunday is determined to rebuild her life back on the East Coast, even if it does mean tiptoeing around resentful brothers and an ex-fiancé. The longer she stays, however, the more she realizes they need her just as much as she needs them.
When a dangerous man from her past brings her family’s pub business to the brink of financial ruin, Sunday knows that the only way to protect her family is to reveal deeply buried secrets – secrets that will threaten everything they know about their lives. In the aftermath, the Brennan family is forced to confront painful mistakes - and find a way forward, together.
'An astonishingly accomplished debut - the Brennans leap fully formed onto the page in this brilliantly judged novel of the intricacies of family life . . . Wholly engrossing.' - Cathy Kelly, author of The Year That Changed Everything
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About Tracey Lange
Reviews for We are the Brennans
Hannah Beckerman
Guardian
An astonishingly accomplished debut - the Brennans leap fully formed onto the page in this brilliantly judged novel of the intricacies of family life where the past can shadow the future until someone breaks free. Secrets abound and it's blissful to watch the Brennans from the sidelines, both a part of the family dynamics and yet, gloriously not in the middle of the fractures. Wholly engrossing.
Cathy Kelly Confident, polished debut novel . . . a book about secrets
New York Times
The Brennans are a great complex fictional family
Entertainment Weekly
Lange’s engaging family drama is fuelled by secrets and full of heart
People
A very accomplished debut and sublime storytelling. It oozes tension, but has so much warmth and tenderness too. I loved meeting this dysfunctional family.
Claire Allan, author of Her Name Was Rose and The Nurse I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of a close-knit family's individual and collective crises. Sharply written, well-observed, and a gorgeous mix of heart-warming and edgy with a massively touching love story at its heart.
Tracy Rees, author of Amy Snow and The Rose Garden Lange’s sizzling debut novel, which is an instant New York Times bestseller, explores the staying power of shame – and the redemptive power of love – in an Irish Catholic family torn apart by secrets
Good Morning America
Tracey Lange expertly captures the way one harrowing night can forever change a family. I devoured every page of this confident, accomplished debut
Amy Meyerson, internationally bestselling author of The Bookshop of Yesterdays and The Imperfects Reading this novel is like getting a view through a lighted window on a family sitting around a table after dark. All families have their own story and the ways they tell it to themselves, and untangling the many strands of this one was deep and richly satisfying.
Sarah Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Guest Book Lange skilfully contrasts the solace of family ties with the paralyzing burden of carrying secrets for too long. Her flawed but big-hearted Brennans will sneak under your skin
Star Tribune
Lange’s richly layered debut . . . deftly examines the long shadow of family history and the bonds that cannot be broken
Booklist
In Lange’s accomplished debut . . . she keeps all of the Brennans sizzling with humanity while they grapple with familial loyalty. Fans of intense family dramas are in for a treat
Publishers Weekly
In the vein of Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest, We Are the Brennans explores the redemptive power of love in an Irish Catholic family torn apart by secrets
PureWow