How to Bury Your Brother: A Novel

by Lindsey Rogers Cook

Overview

"Part mystery, part Southern gothic, and wholly original, Cook's debut novel establishes her as an author to watch....[and] for fans of Celeste Ng and Joshilyn Jackson. " — Booklist

Her brother's letters reveal everything—if only he'd written one to her.

Alice always thought she'd see her brother again. Rob ran away when he was fifteen, with so many years left to find his way home. But his funeral happened first.

Eight years later she has to clear out her childhood home in Georgia, and the memories come flooding in, bringing with them an autopsy report showing her family's lies—and sealed, addressed letters from Rob.

In a search for answers to questions she's always been afraid to ask, Alice delivers the letters. Each dares her to open her eyes to her family's secrets and the ghosts of her own past. But it's the last letter, addressed to her brother's final home in New Orleans, that will force her to choose if she'll let the trauma break her or finally bring her home.

Everything I Never Told You meets The Night Olivia Fell set against a vivid Southern backdrop, How to Bury Your Brother is the highly-discussable story of a sister coming to terms with her brother's life and death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728205373
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	05/12/2020
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	1,151,074
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lindsey Rogers Cook is the author of two novels, How to Bury Your Brother and Learning to Speak Southern. She works at The New York Times as a senior editor for digital storytelling and training and graduated from the University of Georgia. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband and a small zoo of rescue animals.

Editorial Reviews

"An accomplished, insightful debut." — Library Journal

"Lindsey Cook is a radiant new voice in southern fiction. The debut novel, How to Bury Your Brother is both wise and captivating. Cook’s prose rings true as she takes us through the journey of a sister coming to terms with her brother’s death, family hidden stories and her own role in all of it. This is a book, and an author, who will grab your heart and not let go even after the very last page." — Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author

"How to Bury your Brother explores what happens when a lifetime of secrets pushes one woman to the breaking point. Both heartbreaking and hopeful, Alice's journey to find the truth about her brother's death uncovers more about her family—and about herself—than she ever bargained for. A must-read." — Haley Harrigan, author of Secrets of Southern Girls

"How to Bury Your Brother is a beautifully crafted novel about the tethers of family, the wounds of dysfunction, and the persistence of truth. Lindsey Rogers Cook brilliantly uses the power of place to remind us of what we might find when we truly go home." — Sarah Enderlin Healy, author of The Sisters Chase

"Part mystery, part Southern gothic, and wholly original, Cook’s debut novel establishes her as an author to watch....[and] for fans of Celeste Ng and Joshilyn Jackson. " — Booklist

"Lindsey Rogers Cook has blessed us with this penetrating, page-turning mystery about that greatest mystery of all: family. How To Bury Your Brother is a deeply wise book about the secrets that families keep, about the dysfunctions that grumble just beneath the surface. A profoundly honest and insightful and beautiful novel." — Nathan Hill, New York Times bestselling author of The Nix

"Brilliantly plotted and beautifully written, How to Bury Your Brother questions how well we really know the people we love—and whether it’s ever too late to learn the truth. An unforgettable debut." — Kristy Woodson Harvey, bestselling author of Slightly South of Simple

"The one thing Alice knows with certainty on the day of her beloved brother's funeral is that, somehow, she must find answers to the questions that have haunted her since the day her brother left home at the age of fifteen—even if the quest could destroy everything she thinks she holds dear. With How To Bury Your Brother, Lindsey Rogers Cook has penned a deeply felt novel that unspools the threads of secrets long-buried beneath the seemingly sunny surface of one Southern family. Readers will find themselves immersed in Alice's quest, and rooting for her to discover the real meaning of home." — Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author

From the Publisher

04/01/2020

DEBUT Just before her childhood home in Atlanta is to be razed, Alice Wright finds seven sealed letters hidden in a crawl space. The letters are written by her brother, Rob Tate, who died nine years earlier. Despite her disappointment that there is no letter for her, she sets out to deliver each of them, hoping to learn about Rob's life and—especially—why he disappeared from home just before turning 16 and never returned. She and Rob had been particularly close, despite their five-year age difference, and she looked for him while his absence irretrievably damaged their family. Now, with her father dead and her mother in assisted living, Alice must face her own marital problems and family conflicts while struggling to stop the pattern of convenient lies. VERDICT Although the title suggests that this is a mystery, it's actually literary fiction about a particularly dysfunctional Southern family with dark secrets, featuring a woman who confronts hard truths. This is an accomplished, insightful debut ideally suited for book groups, with reading group guide and author interview included.—Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Library Journal