The Bad Angel Brothers

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

A deliciously dark, atmospheric novel about family and brotherhood from one of America's most distinctive writers

There's sibling rivalry and then there's the relationship of brothers Cal and Frank Belanger, which takes fraternal antipathy to a whole new level.

Enemies seemingly since childhood, the small town of Littleford, where they are nicknamed 'The Bad Angle Brothers', just isn't big enough to hold them both. So Cal strikes out for the world's wild places -- a gifted geologist in search of gold and other precious minerals, leaving Frank to develop a successful career as the town's lawyer, fixer and local hero.

Apart, their differences are muted by distance, but when Cal, newly rich and newly wed, returns to the town of his birth, to buy a house and raise a family, Frank gives him the opposite of a brotherly welcome. From undermining Cal's marriage, while Cal is away on business, to torpedoing his finances, nothing is off the table, setting the scene for a tale of gleefully vicious betrayals and reprisals, culminating in the ultimate plan: murder.

Few authors have as keen an eye for human nature as the inimitable Paul Theroux, and this riveting tale of adventure, betrayal, and the true cost of family bonds is a remarkable new work from one of America's most distinctive writers.

© Paul Theroux 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

  • A manic tale of sibling rivalry that owes its small town setting mostly to John Cheever, and its seething resentment mostly to William Shakespeare . . . at once maundering and intensely emotionally violent

    Observer

  • Searing and memorable . . . Theroux plays skillfully on reader sympathies until the bitter end, showing how a man’s beliefs can make him turn to violence

    Publishers Weekly

  • American master Paul Theroux delivers a chilling psychological novel in The Bad Angel Brothers

    Honolulu Magazine

  • Watch the magician’s hands: Theroux has some powerful twists in his hat, and the language and compelling prose with which to offer them into the spotlight

    New York Journal of Books

  • Theroux’s prose is so rich, his perceptions so many-layered, he involves us in a world that extends well beyond the physical limits of his novel

    The Times

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