NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,” wrote The New Yorker on the publication of her Pulitzer Prize–winning Olive Kitteridge . The San Francisco Chronicle praised Strout’s “magnificent gift for humanizing characters.” Now the acclaimed author returns with a stunning novel as powerful and moving as any work in contemporary literature.

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 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 Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess 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.

With a rare combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into character, Elizabeth Strout has brought to life two deeply human protagonists whose struggles and triumphs will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page. 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.

Praise for The Burgess Boys

“Elizabeth Strout’s first two books, Abide with Me and Amy and Isabelle, were highly thought of, and her third, Olive Kitteridge, won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. But The Burgess Boys, her most recent novel, is her best yet.” —The Boston Globe

“No one should be surprised by the poignancy and emotional vigor of Elizabeth Strout’s new novel. But the broad social and political range of The Burgess Boys shows just how impressively this extraordinary writer continues to develop.” — The Washington Post

“Strout’s greatest gift as a writer, outside a diamond-sharp precision that packs 320 fast-paced pages full of insight, is her ability to let the reader in on all the rancor of her characters without making any of them truly detestable. . . . Strout creates a portrait of an American community in turmoil that’s as ambitious as Philip Roth’s American Pastoral but more intimate in tone.” — Time

“What truly makes Strout exceptional—and her latest supple and penetrating novel so profoundly affecting—is the perfect balance she achieves between the tides of story and depths of feeling. . . . Every element in Strout’s graceful, many-faceted novel is keenly observed, lustrously imagined and trenchantly interpreted.” —Chicago Tribune

“Strout deftly exposes the tensions that fester among families. But she also takes a broader view, probing cultural divides. . . . Illustrating the power of roots, Strout assures us we can go home again—though we may not want to.” — O: The Oprah Magazine

伊丽莎白·斯特劳特 (Elizabeth Strout)美国当代著名作家。1956年生于美国缅因州的波特兰市,大学毕业后开始文学创作,作品散见于《纽约客》等重要文学杂志。1998年,出版长篇处女作《艾米和伊莎贝拉》（Amy and Isabelle）,先后荣获《洛杉矶时报》最佳首作奖及《芝加哥论坛报》中心文学奖,并入选橘子奖决选名单和美国笔会/福克纳奖提名。2006年出版《与我同在》（Abide with Me）,登上全美畅销榜,入选美国独立书商协会选书。2008年出版第三部作品《奥丽芙·基特里奇》（Olive Kitteridge）,次年获得普利策小说奖。

《伯吉斯家的男孩们》是她的最新作品。作者用一个家庭的故事,精妙地刻画了文化之间、人性之间的冲突和矛盾。在美国出版后,即成为“《纽约时报》畅销书”“亚马逊十大精装书”,同时被《华盛顿邮报》、美国国家公共电台、《时尚·好管家》评为年度好书。