A 2026 BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE FINALIST

An extraordinary and deeply satisfying story about love, betrayal, mercy, and second chances—for readers of Elizabeth Strout and Ann Napolitano

When Stafford Hopkins loses his high-profile job in network television, his American colleagues rejoice. Canadian-born, his disdain for the industry has outrun his success, and few mourn his departure. His mercurial American wife in tow, he retreats to their luxury estate on Maui where he does what he has always done best?he rewrites the past. But a year into their exile, Stafford’s defenses are crumbling, and when a letter arrives with a request from the dead to do something for the living, he is summoned home to a farm, a lake, a prison, and a dance hall where the spirit of a boy named Bobby Shepherd is waiting for him.

“Patricia Finn has constructed something miraculous—an immersive, profoundly moving story about friendship, marriage, betrayal, and redemption that spans across generations and oceans. She writes with a philosopher’s deep wisdom, and a screenwriter’s talent for satisfyingly messy characters and wholly gripping plots. Combine all of that with the fact that The Golden Boy is also very, very funny, and what you’ve got is a novel that’s about as perfect as they come.” —Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding