Author: Tracey Lange
Reviewed by Chloe Fuksa, Putnam Six Bookstore
If you’re looking for a good Irish book to read this month to mark St. Patrick’s Day, We Are the Brennans is a wonderful choice. The debut novel of author Tracey Lange, it was released in late 2021 and is now available in paperback. The Brennans are a large family of first- and second-generation Irish immigrants living north of New York City. They own a very successful pub in town, but all their problems and all their secrets come to a head with the opening of a second location.
Sunday, the only daughter and sister, abruptly fled to Los Angeles five years ago, without any explanation for her family or her fiancé, Kale. Now, she has returned home to heal, physically and mentally, after a bad car crash, and is tasked with making heads and tales of her brother Denny’s accounting books at the pub. Unbeknownst to anyone else, he has made a handful of risky money decisions – like using the first pub as collateral – that have jeopardized everyone’s future. For Kale, in addition to the anxiety of the opening, the return of Sunday has brought up so many unanswered questions – which are even more complicated now that he has a wife and son of his own. What the family comes to realize is that the root of everyone’s problems is a certain family enemy – who now has a prime opportunity for sabotage to take them all down.
We Are the Brennans is a great family drama, with a splash of mystery and a splash of romance added in too. It feels simultaneously like a deep, thoughtful book and a light, fun book. There is also a really unique stylistic choice at the beginning of every chapter that helps the book flow quickly. So, this March, pour yourself a Guinness and get absorbed into the messy, yet wonderfully loyal, Brennan family.
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