Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden

Strangers by Belle Burden: A Memoir I Went Into Blind and Loved

Strangers by Belle Burden is one of those audiobooks I picked up before the hype, and it ended up being a perfect fit for the way I read nonfiction. While I am driving, exercising, or doing housework, I really enjoy listening to audiobooks. Most of my audiobook selections come from Libro.fm because it encourages me to read something new or even something pre-publication, since I have access to advanced reader copies as a librarian. I especially love literary nonfiction or memoir as an audiobook because it feels like someone is just telling you a true story while you go about your day. Strangers is exactly that: Belle telling you the true story of the failure of her marriage, alongside their love story, her family history, his family history, and everything that eventually led to the unraveling of their life together.

I listened to Strangers by Belle Burden before all the hype around this book began, so I did not really have a frame of reference and went in blind. I am really glad I did, because I thought the book was fantastic and I was not tainted by anyone else’s opinion of it. Belle narrates the book herself, which was an added bonus. I genuinely felt like a friend was speaking to me about her experience.

What Worked for Me

Although my life looks nothing like the author’s, I still felt deeply connected to her story. She is a trust-fund kid with family homes in NYC and Martha’s Vineyard, and I am an average middle-class American living in the South – yet she is such a strong writer and storyteller that she pulls you in and makes you feel with her. My enjoyment of tabloid stories and reality TV may have fed my interest in the gossip layer of this one, but it would not have landed nearly as hard if the author had not been so reflective and willing to be honest about the mistakes they both made in their marriage.

Belle and her family are at their home on Martha’s Vineyard, escaping NYC during the COVID-19 lockdowns, when she finds out her husband has been having an affair. Within days, he tells her he no longer wants to be married to her and no longer wants to parent their children. As you would expect, this throws her into an extreme state of sadness, but it also pushes her to try to understand how she got here and how to resolve it for the best outcome for her and her kids. There are so many poignant scenes between Belle and her daughters that had me in tears, and so many scenes between Belle and her husband that made me genuinely angry.

Where It Fell Short

If you are easily annoyed by privileged people describing the difficulties of their life, this may be one to skip. The Martha’s Vineyard / NYC / trust-fund setting will pull some readers in and push others out, and the level of personal financial cushion is hard to ignore in places. It is also a sad book at its core, so if you are not in the headspace for a heavy memoir right now, that is worth knowing going in.

Who Should Read It

Read Strangers if you enjoy a good memoir, can sit with an occasional sad story, or just like reading about someone whose life looks different from yours. If you are drawn to stories about socialites, New York City, or Martha’s Vineyard, you will probably find the setting compelling on its own. Audiobook listeners get a real bonus here because Belle narrates it herself, and her voice carries a lot of the emotional weight.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought Strangers was a well-written and engaging memoir, and I would highly recommend it to the right reader. Belle Burden’s openness about her own mistakes – and her willingness to give her husband and his family the same close look she gives her own – is what kept this from feeling like a one-sided account and what made the final stretch land so hard for me.

My rating is 4.0 stars. If you read memoirs for honest reflection and a strong narrator, this is an easy yes – and the audiobook is the version I would point friends to first.