We Are the Brennans

'beautifully observed portrait of dysfunctional family life.' Hannah Beckerman, The Observer

'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

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 realizes that the only way to protect her family is to reveal deeply buried 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.

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.