Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage
Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage
by Belle Burden
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About the Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Burden’s searing, probing memoir explores . . . what she learned about intimacy and her own spirit.”—People
“A beautifully written instant classic. Strangers is gripping and heartbreaking and a must-read for every wife—and husband.”—Graydon Carter
“Asks us to examine life’s most perplexing questions: Can we see the invisible fault lines in a marriage or truly know the people closest to us?”—Lori Gottlieb
It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn’t.
In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together—building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume.
In Strangers, Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed. The discreet, compliant woman she once was—someone nicknamed “Belle the Good”—gives way to someone braver, someone determined to use her voice.
With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love. Strangers is a stunning, deeply moving, compulsively readable memoir heralding the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent.
About the Author
Belle Burden holds a BA from Harvard College and a law degree from the New York University School of Law. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times. She lives with her children in New York City.
Editorial Reviews
“Reads like a love story and a horror story and, in one nail-biting section, like a financial thriller.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)
“Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage, is a beautifully written eulogy for the loss of a relationship that had been loving, trusting, ‘traditional’ (in the best, unironic sense of the word)—riveting reading for its heartrending candor. Belle Burden examines the very nature of intimacy, vulnerability, and, in practical terms, the naïveté of many a young woman who falls in love with a ‘perfect’ mate.’”—Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times bestselling author of Fox
“Examines how we view intimacy, how the people closest to us can change without us knowing, and how to move forward in the wake of devastation.”—W magazine
“This is a beautiful memoir: Hard-won, incandescently honest, and ultimately affirming.”—Elise Loehnen, New York Times bestselling author of On Our Best Behavior
“A beautifully written instant classic. Strangers is gripping and heartbreaking and a must-read for every wife—and husband.”—Graydon Carter, New York Times bestselling author of When the Going Was Good
“In this frank, moving memoir, Burden brings readers along as she grapples with unfathomable change in and outside of her family, and pulls off the impressive trick of writing about writing herself back to wellness.”—Town & Country
“In Strangers, Belle Burden writes with piercing honesty about what happens when the life you trusted vanishes overnight—and the deeper reckoning that follows when the story you’ve lived no longer holds. With astounding compassion, she asks us to examine life’s most perplexing questions alongside her: Can we see the invisible fault lines in a marriage or truly know the people closest to us? This is an unforgettable story not just of heartbreak, but of self-recognition—of the quiet courage of learning to live in your own truth.”—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone