The Boys, Katie Hafner
The Boys, Katie Hafner
28 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

The Boys
A Novel

Author: Katie Hafner

Narrator: BJ Harrison

Unabridged: 7 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/26/2022


Synopsis

“Hafner’s taut and utterly delightful debut is a novel of multitudes…. What a wonder of storytelling.”—Weike Wang, New York Times 
 
New York Times Editor’s Choice |Good Morning America Reading Pick | LitHub Most Anticipated Book | Christian Science Monitor Summer Reading Pick 
 
A delicious summer read filled with humor and surprise for readers of Anne Tyler and Kevin Wilson. 
When introverted Ethan Fawcett marries fun-loving Barb, so comfortable in the world, he has every reason to believe he will be delivered from a lifetime of solitude. She fills his world with a senseof adventure, expanding his horizons beyond his comfortable routine. To ease Ethan’s fears of becoming a father, Barb suggests they foster two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, and Ethan immediately falls in love with the boys. 
 
When the pandemic hits, he becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for them. But instead of bringing Barb and Ethan closer together, the boys become a wedge in their relationship, as Ethan isunable to share with Barb a secret that has been haunting him since childhood. Then Ethan takes Tommy and Sam on a biking trip in Italy, and it becomes clear just how unusual Ethan and his boys are. 

About Katie Hafner

Katie Hafner is the author or coauthor of several books, including A Romance on Three Legs, The Well, and Where Wizards Stay Up Late. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, covering healthcare and technology. She has also been on the staff of Newsweek and BusinessWeek. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Wired, the Huffington Post, the New Republic, and O: The Oprah Magazine. She lives in San Francisco.


Reviews

“The Boys” by Katie Hafner is a quirky story about our society’s ability (or lack-thereof) to recognize the beauty and kindness of eccentrics. It is rare that an eccentric person is seen in an empathetic gaze, rather than a judgmental one. Hafner chooses to place her story around the 2020 pandemic,......more

Goodreads review by Jessica

Either you are going to be with this book or you're going to be mad at it. (Which, I guess, makes it a great book club pick.) I am not mad, exactly, but I do feel a little bit like I just saw one of those memes where you didn't realize the hat is actually a cake that looks like a hat until someone s......more

The Boys by Katie Hafner was a clever and heartwarming debut novel. The characters in The Boys were beautifully rendered and endearing. It was a story that hinged on the lingering affects of a childhood trauma and how that trauma lingered into adulthood and played havoc with emotions, decisions, per......more

Goodreads review by Dona

Thank you to the author and publisher for an advance reader copy, and to Libby for an audiobook copy of THE BOYS. For Ethan and Barb, one of the greatest casualties of the Covid pandemic of 2020 and resulting shutdown, is their marriage. They simply don't agree on anything any longer, not after spend......more