Strangers

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 in Vogue, BBC, New York Times, W Magazine, Town & Country

Praise:

• ‘A beautifully written eulogy for the loss of a relationship’ — Joyce Carol Oates
• ‘Beautiful... devastating ... Strangers reads with all the momentum and colour of water-tight literary fiction’ — British Vogue
• ‘Burden is an elegant writer … As Strangers and myriad TV shows attest, even the most intimate and long marriages can yield nasty surprises. In the end, how well do you really know the person who lies next to you in bed every night?’ — Economist
• ‘A compelling tale of marriage and deception… Strangers raises some serious questions about the nature of intimacy and what makes a "perfect" marriage … I devoured Strangers in about two days’ — Lucy Denyer, Telegraph
• ‘Examines how we view intimacy, how the people closest to us can change without us knowing, and how to move forward in the wake of devastation.’ — W Magazine
• ‘Burden's sharp, personal writing brings readers deep into her unthinkable circumstances and offers a promise to anyone suffering: you can make it to the other side.’ — Town & Country

How do we go on when a loved one betrays us? On a chilly day in March 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, Belle Burden's husband of twenty years announced, with no prior warning, that he was leaving her. His decision shocked Belle to her core. She believed he was a happy man, a committed partner, and a devoted father to their three children.

She thought he had settled into the life he had always wanted: a successful career, summers at their beloved home on Martha's Vineyard, and lots of tennis. Overnight, he transformed from steady companion into a stranger.

As Belle pieces her life together in the wake of a loss she had never imagined, she discovers reserves of strength she did not know she had. Strangers charts the transformation of a shy, quiet girl, nicknamed “Belle the Good”, into a powerful, brave, determined woman who learns to use her voice to expose the patriarchal structures that have forced women to be discreet and compliant for too long.

A must-read memoir of self-discovery.