In the vein of Mary Beth Keane’s Ask Again, Yes and Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest, Tracey Lange’s 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.

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, the only way to protect them is to upend all their secrets—secrets that have damaged the family for generations and will threaten everything they know about their lives. In the aftermath, the Brennan family is forced to confront painful mistakes—and ultimately find a way forward, together.

Review:

Affecting, nuanced, and immersive!

We Are the Brennans is an intense, captivating, multi-generational story that delves into the complex bonds and emotional ties between family members and immerses you in a tale about confronting the past, accepting the things you cannot change, rediscovering one’s self, learning to trust, and moving on.

The prose is polished and smooth. The characters are conflicted, loyal, and scarred. And the plot told from multiple POVs is an exceptionally absorbing tale about life, loss, love, secrets, resentment, regret, acceptance, forgiveness, familial drama, friendship, loneliness, miscommunication, and passion.

Overall, I found We Are the Brennans to be a beautiful mix of hope, healing, and heart that is not only a moving, emotive, stunning debut by Lange but definitely a must-read for anyone who loves a well-written, meaty family saga.

This novel is available on August 3, 2021.

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