What's Missing from Belle Burden's Best-Selling Memoir, "Strangers"

Belle Burden’s “Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage” became a top-selling nonfiction book, debuting at No. 1 and remaining near the top for months. The story begins during early coronavirus quarantine when Burden learns her husband is having an affair, then he leaves and quickly seeks divorce while refusing custody and day-to-day parenting. The narrative emphasizes how the end of a relationship can cast prior life into shadow and uncertainty. A review of court documents complicates the account, adding details that challenge aspects of the memoir’s depiction of financial peril.

"Belle Burden's "Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage" is the runaway publishing phenomenon of the year. In January, it debuted at No. 1 on the Times hardcover nonfiction list. Four months after its publication, the book, in its ninth printing, still hovers near the top of the rankings. On NPR's "All Things Considered," the co-host Juana Summers summed up the popularity of "Strangers" by asking, "Have you ever had that experience, no matter who you talk to-your mom, your friend, your co-worker-they're all telling you, 'You've just got to read this book'?""

"The opening chapter of "Strangers," which is expanded from a viral essay that Burden published in the Times ' "Modern Love" section, is fittingly cinematic. One evening early in the coronavirus pandemic, after Burden's family left their Tribeca apartment to quarantine in their second home, on Martha's Vineyard, Burden receives a phone call in which she discovers that her husband of twenty years is having an affair. By the next morning, he has left the island and is asking for a divorce. He rejects their life together; he doesn't even want to share custody of their three children or any day-to-day parenting responsibilities."

"It's easy to see why Burden's story has resonated with so many readers. "Strangers" is a poignant account of how the end of a relationship can cast everything that came before it into shadow and uncertainty; it captures the p"

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