In March 2020, while quarantining on Martha’s Vineyard, Belle Burden gets a voicemail that detonates her life: a stranger calmly claims her husband is having an affair. When she confronts him, he doesn’t scramble or apologize. He confirms it, then walks out at dawn, coldly certain she’ll “be fine.” Overnight, the man she married seems replaced by someone unrecognizable, and the social world around them begins picking sides.
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In Strangers, Burden rewinds the tape of her marriage, looking for the quiet compromises, the family lessons in staying silent, and the moments she normalized what should have alarmed her. Along the way, she rebuilds: through motherhood, daily walks, legal work, hard conversations, and—most unexpectedly—writing again.
If you’ve ever wondered how a life can fracture in one message, and how someone finds their voice after being erased, this summary is for you.
