Boy from the North Country

When Evan, twenty-six, is suddenly called home to the secluded farmhouse where he was raised by his mother, June, there is so much he does not yet know. He doesn't know his mother is dying. He still doesn't know the identity of his biological father or the elusive story of his mother's creatively intense, emotionally turbulent romance with Bob Dylan, whom Evan reveres as an artist and whom strangers have long insisted he resembles. He doesn't know what drove his mother to leave New York City for a completely different existence.





In this deeply moving debut novel, inspired by the author's own uncertain celebrity paternity, Sam Sussman writes one of the most tender and intimate mother-son relationships of our era. Caring for his mother as her illness worsens, and as she begins to tell him truths he has waited so long to hear, Evan comes to understand the startling gift this extraordinary woman has bequeathed him.



Sam Sussman grew up in the Hudson Valley. He graduated with a BA from Swarthmore College and an MPhil from the University of Oxford and has lived in Berlin and Jerusalem. His writing has been recognized by BAFTA and published in Harper's Magazine. He lives in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Manhattan and his native Hudson Valley.



A remarkable novel. It's a penetratingly observed exploration of loss and grief, healing and mortality, theology, philosophy and, above all, art



Come for the riveting father-son mystery, stay for the most beautiful and moving mother-son story in recent memory



Boy from the North Country reveals Bob Dylan at his most alive and inspired, as you have never seen him before. This book is a monumental event for anyone who cares about Dylan. More meaningfully, the book transforms into an emotionally moving story of what it means to love a mother and be a son



A debut novel of rare power...Tragic and redemptive, poetic and provocative, this novel held me breathless at every turn. Sussman is a writer of many gifts



This novel has a haunting story to tell, and it tells it beautifully. It was a pleasure to read



A dazzling book that promises everything and delivers more...a beautifully written, emotionally nuanced portrait of a woman in all her complexity and courage