The Burgess Boys

The Burgess Boys is a novel by American author Elizabeth Strout, published by Random House in 2013. Strout’s fourth novel, it tells the story of two brothers who return home to help their sister after her son is accused of a hate crime. The novel is set in the fictional New England town of Shirley Falls, which was also the setting of Strout's first novel, Amy and Isabelle.

The book follows a year in the life of Bob and Jim Burgess, who have escaped their small hometown in Maine for New York. Bob, Jim, and Susan Burgess grew up in tiny Shirley Falls, a small town in Maine that has been on the decline for a while but has recently seen an influx of immigrants from Somalia. The Somali’s integration into the community has not been easy, as their customs are different and the language barrier often leads to misunderstandings. Things come to a head when nineteen-year-old Zach Olson, Susan's son, throws a pig's head into the local mosque during the holy time of Ramadan, leading to his arrest and the threat of a federal hate crime charge.

After Zach is arrested and charged, Susan calls her brothers who are both lawyers living in New York City. Although they are both attorneys, the brothers have taken different paths. Jim gained fame and fortune after winning the acquittal of a man accused of murder. He has gone on to work for a large law firm in the city, representing white-collar defendants. He lives with his wife and their three children. Bob, divorced and childless, works for Legal Aid. He is haunted by the memory of sitting in his father’s car at four years old and releasing the clutch. The car ran over and killed his father. Although the family never speaks of this incident, the sadness of it hovers over their family and has shaped their lives in ways they do not even understand.



When Susan calls to tell her brothers the news, Jim is on vacation with his wife, Helen, so Bob goes to Maine on his own to see how he can help. In spite of his good intentions, upon arrival, he ends up making things worse. In doing so, he feels that he is only preserving his reputation within his family, and perpetuating the idea that Jim is the competent brother. The situation continues to escalate as news reports of the pig’s head incident spread, inciting anger amongst the Somali population of Shirley Falls.

Bob goes back to New York City, feeling that he has nothing left to contribute, and no way to help his sister and nephew. The local clergy plans a tolerance rally in the hopes of diffusing the situation, but a white supremacist group hijacks the event, planning a counter protest. Bob returns to Maine for the rally, this time with Jim by his side. At the rally, Jim delivers a heartfelt speech that seems to rouse the sympathy of the angry Somali’s, and everyone is convinced that the problem is on its way to being resolved in a peaceful manner. However, Jim soon learns that his arrogant attitude has angered local and state politicians, who now plan to charge Zach with a federal hate crime. Terrified, Zach decides to run away in order to avoid the charges against him.

Jim and Bob return to Maine once again to sort out Zach's disappearance, which at first appears to be a potential suicide. While attempting to locate their nephew’s whereabouts, Jim gets drunk and tells Bob that it was he who let off the clutch, causing the accident that killed their father. Eight years old at the time, Jim moved Bob to the driver's seat before anyone arrived, and although he felt guilty, he never told anyone, allowing Bob to shoulder the blame and guilt.



While Bob's life begins to take a turn for the positive, Jim's unravels. It is revealed that he has been having an affair with his paralegal, leading to a sexual harassment charge, his dismissal from the firm, and Helen kicking him out. Eventually, all the charges against Zach are dropped and he returns home. By this time, Jim has taken a teaching job at a small upstate college and is living in near squalor. Bob finds him there and takes him back to Shirley Falls. He and Susan put him on a bus back to New York where he hopes to reconcile with Helen. In a final act of redemption, Bob returns to his hometown to start a new life with Margaret Estaver, the Unitarian minister who has taken an interest in Zach's case. His ties to his brother clearly remain strong.