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Explore membershipsStrangers
A Memoir of Marriage
Narrator
Belle Burden
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Length
7 hours 3 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Gut-wrenchingly written, an in-depth look at what it really means to love someone, and to ask if we ever really know them. ”
— Jes • Park Books
Bookseller recommendation
“The author of this thought-provoking and revealing memoir had it all: three beautiful children, homes in New York and Martha’s Vineyard and a husband with whom she remained deeply in love over the course of 20 years. Until the early days of the pandemic, when a phone call from a stranger revealed to Belle that James was having an affair with the caller’s wife. James’s reaction was to walk out of their lives, immediately seeking a divorce and relinquishing any desire for custody. So many questions crossed my mind while listening: can we miss the signs that our lives are about to drastically change? Where do we find the strength when navigating grief to fight for ourselves? Can we find compassion for someone who behaves horribly? I was thinking about all this and more while completely absorbed in this heart-wrenching, vulnerable and well-written story of a marriage.”
— Carolyn • Mrs. Dalloway's
Bookseller recommendation
“This is a captivating, well-written memoir about marriage. She has written this book with grace and compassion. It is captivating, I didn't want to stop listening. I highly recommend. ”
— Terry • Books & Greetings
Bookseller recommendation
“When half of all marriages end in divorce, why are we surprised when it happens to us? This book is a well-crafted tale of someone completely blindsided by her husband leaving her, and it was quite believable that she was surprised. She was pretty naive. What stunned me was how her husband just severed the relationship with their three school-age children. Like he turned a page, and that was it. As a divorced person with children, I really kept wondering what kind of person would do that - apparently, lots do. The book has many cautionary tales, and one of them is that if you are in a monoculture, you cannot disrupt it. She travelled in circles of basically all wealthy, white, married women with families. It takes a lot of control to maintain that kind of community. She was surprised that they didn't embrace her. ”
— Barbara • Parkside Bookshop
Bookseller recommendation
“Despite knowing the vague outline of this story based on the NYT Modern Love essay, I found this completely engrossing. Belle's vulnerability and forthrightness were an absolute gut punch. Something about her storytelling removes the distance from her experience and sympathy becomes empathy. I'm still thinking about this book.”
— Destinee • East City Bookshop
Summary
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.
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Audiobook details
Author:
Belle Burden
Narrator:
Belle Burden
ISBN:
9798217073443
Length:
7 hours 3 minutes
Language:
English
Publisher:
Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Publication date:
January 13, 2026
Edition:
Unabridged
Libro.fm rank:
#35 Overall
Genre rank:
#2 in Family & Relationships
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
“A lyrical and gripping tale of the abrupt end of a seemingly solid and loving marriage. I read Strangers in one weekend. Beyond Burden’s beautiful writing and shocking story, it is a call to feminism. She reminds us: Don’t fall asleep at the wheel, be self-sustaining, stake a claim in what’s yours. Strangers is a woman’s graceful awakening—and one to learn from.”—Isabel Gillies, New York Times bestselling author of Happens Every Day
“Heartbreaking and hopeful. So honest . . . but also exquisitely fair. A real story of resilience.”—George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America
“Burden’s journey speaks to anyone broken by the unimaginable and courageous enough to forge a new beginning.”—Adrienne Brodeur, New York Times bestselling author of Wild Game
“In reclaiming her voice and story, Burden refuses to keep the silence and make the excuses as implicitly expected by society . . . and she remains charitable and gracious even when she does not have to be. A measured, empathetic, and modern response to an enraging callousness.”—Kirkus Reviews Expand reviews
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