Celadon Books is pleased to announce our latest acquisition, WE ARE THE BRENNANS by Tracey Lange. Publisher and Senior Vice President Deb Futter acquired the debut novel from Stephanie Cabot at The Gernert Company.
In the vein of Mary Beth Keane’s Ask Again, Yes and Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s The Nest, Tracey Lange’s 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.
Twenty-nine-year-old Sunday Brennan is determined to rebuild her life back on the East Coast, even if it means 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 the Brennans’ pub business to the brink of financial ruin, the only way to protect the family is to upend all their secrets ― secrets that have damaged them for generations and will threaten everything they know about their lives. In the aftermath, the Brennan family is forced to confront painful mistakes ― and ultimately find a way forward, together.
“To me, there is almost nothing better than a family novel about a close-knit Irish family,” said Futter. “The characters in WE ARE THE BRENNANS are so beautifully portrayed that they became my friends and family, and I was sorry to see them go when I turned the last page... This is the perfect novel for book clubs and readers of smart but commercial fiction.”
Born in the Bronx and raised in Manhattan, Tracey Lange comes from a large Irish family with a few secrets of its own. She headed west and graduated from the University of New Mexico before owning and operating a behavioral healthcare company with her husband for fifteen years. While writing her debut novel, We Are the Brennans, she completed the Stanford University online novel writing program. Tracey currently lives in Bend, Oregon with her husband, two sons and their German Shepherd. We Are the Brennans is her first novel.
We Are the Brennans will be published on August 3, 2021, by Celadon Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers.