We are the Brennans

Lange's richly layered debut follows an Irish-American family as they confront long-buried secrets that might tear them apart. Sunday Brennan left her family in New York for California five years ago, and has barely kept in touch with her brothers Denny, Jackie, and Shane, or her father, Mickey. Her ex-fiancé, Kale, still doesn't understand why she moved away so suddenly. A serious car accident brings Sunday home and into the thick of the family's problems. Denny's wife and daughter just moved out to get some space from the tension at home. The second location of Denny and Kale's bar is almost ready to open after months of delays and more money spent than Denny can admit. Kale's wife, Vivienne, is suspicious of Sunday's return and the strength of her own marriage. Jackie has been keeping Sunday's secret for five years and is scared that she'll leave again. Mickey's dementia is advancing, yet he remembers his mistakes from years past. Lange deftly examines the long shadow of family history and the bonds that cannot be broken.

An errant daughter returns to the fold of her Irish Catholic family in Lange's accomplished debut. Sunday Brennan shocked her closely-knit West Manor, N.Y., family when she left for Southern California five years earlier, and devastated her fiancé, Kale. When her oldest brother, Denny, owner of the family's pub, is notified that Sunday nearly killed herself while driving drunk, he reliably fills his role as anchor to his three siblings and his frail father, Mickey. Denny has his own issues, including a recent separation from his wife, who has taken their young daughter with her. When Sunday returns, her homecoming is tinged with resentment, regret, and buried passion for Kale, who has since gotten married, become a father, and partnered with Denny on a new pub. To open it, Denny's taken a risky loan from "Belfast Billy," a guy the Brennans grew up with who works on the pub reno crew. The untrustworthy Billy's dicey role in the pub's future dovetails with secrets involving Mickey's past and Billy's relationship to the family; all this culminates in the revelation of the reason Sunday fled. Lange's narrative perspectives are keenly realized, and 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. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Susanna Lea Assoc. (Aug.)

Shame and miscommunication drive wedges between loving siblings at turning points in their lives. The Irish American family of the title runs a successful pub bearing their name in a small New York town. They're close-knit, but most of them keep shameful secrets from each other. Father Mickey worries he has dementia (and has never talked about his past Irish Republican Army connections); oldest son Denny is stressed because he's about to open a second pub for which he has borrowed a lot of money via sketchy methods and because his wife has moved out. His brothers, artistic Jackie and Shane, who's intellectually disabled but a hardworking bundle of energy, are both haunted by the abrupt and mysterious departure to California five years ago of their sister, Sunday. Now she's home, recuperating from a drunken car wreck but enigmatic as ever, which is really stressing out Denny's best friend and business partner, Kale Collins, who is also Sunday's former fiance. He might have moved on to marriage and fatherhood, but the torch he carries for Sunday is hot enough to burn down both their houses. Lange builds the plot by switching to a different character's point of view in each chapter, giving the reader angles on events that are sometimes intriguingly different. The Brennan men, including Kale, who pretty much grew up with them, rally around Sunday when she's threatened, although they do have a touch of toxic masculinity, tending to think of violent revenge as a solution, and sometimes acting on it. The Brennan matriarch, Maura, has been dead for several years when the story begins, but her influence plays a surprising role. The Brennans find redemption, but Lange doesn't wrap things up too neatly--some of those old secrets have new echoes. A family must face its own secrets to deal with crisis in a well-crafted debut. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Lange's richly layered debut follows an Irish-American family as they confront long-buried secrets that might tear them apart. Sunday Brennan left her family in New York for California five years ago, and has barely kept in touch with her brothers Denny, Jackie, and Shane, or her father, Mickey. Her ex-fiancé, Kale, still doesn't understand why she moved away so suddenly. A serious car accident brings Sunday home and into the thick of the family's problems. Denny's wife and daughter just moved out to get some space from the tension at home. The second location of Denny and Kale's bar is almost ready to open after months of delays and more money spent than Denny can admit. Kale's wife, Vivienne, is suspicious of Sunday's return and the strength of her own marriage. Jackie has been keeping Sunday's secret for five years and is scared that she'll leave again. Mickey's dementia is advancing, yet he remembers his mistakes from years past. Lange deftly examines the long shadow of family history and the bonds that cannot be broken. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.

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An errant daughter returns to the fold of her Irish Catholic family in Lange's accomplished debut. Sunday Brennan shocked her closely-knit West Manor, N.Y., family when she left for Southern California five years earlier, and devastated her fiancé, Kale. When her oldest brother, Denny, owner of the family's pub, is notified that Sunday nearly killed herself while driving drunk, he reliably fills his role as anchor to his three siblings and his frail father, Mickey. Denny has his own issues, including a recent separation from his wife, who has taken their young daughter with her. When Sunday returns, her homecoming is tinged with resentment, regret, and buried passion for Kale, who has since gotten married, become a father, and partnered with Denny on a new pub. To open it, Denny's taken a risky loan from "Belfast Billy," a guy the Brennans grew up with who works on the pub reno crew. The untrustworthy Billy's dicey role in the pub's future dovetails with secrets involving Mickey's past and Billy's relationship to the family; all this culminates in the revelation of the reason Sunday fled. Lange's narrative perspectives are keenly realized, and 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. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Susanna Lea Assoc. (Aug.)