The Golden Boy
Buy from Other Retailers:
2026 B&N Discover Prize Finalist
An unexpected letter sends a man and his wife into their pasts—and offers them both a shot at redemption.
After an involuntary retirement from his high-flying Hollywood career, Stafford Hopkins has retreated to a luxury estate on Maui, along with his wife Agnes, both grimly resigned to...
2026 B&N Discover Prize Finalist
An unexpected letter sends a man and his wife into their pasts—and offers them both a shot at redemption.
After an involuntary retirement from his high-flying Hollywood career, Stafford Hopkins has retreated to a luxury estate on Maui, along with his wife Agnes, both grimly resigned to life in a paradise where neither feels fully at home.
Stafford is ready to retreat into himself, too, when a letter arrives with shocking news. Stafford has been named guardian of four children he didn’t know existed: the grandchildren of his late childhood friend, Bobby Shepherd, whose ghost Stafford can no longer ignore.
Returning to both the hardscrabble farming town and the dark secret he’d tried to forget for decades, Stafford is forced to confront his past in order to rebuild his future—and to redirect the fates of his family and the four young people suddenly in his care.
Slyly funny and deeply moving, The Golden Boy is a captivating debut about love, mercy, and second chances.
"The Golden Boy is not just an astoundingly ambitious novel, but also—and more importantly, in my opinion—a wildly entertaining one, by turns hilarious and heartbreaking. Bravo, Patricia Finn!" ―Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath Trilogy
“With The Golden Boy, 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
"Extraordinary. The Golden Boy is both a love story and a family drama, where the past gives purpose to the present action. I can't recall ever reading such a satisfying ending... nor cheering for characters more enthusiastically."—Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Swan Song and The Perfect Couple
"The Golden Boy is not just an astoundingly ambitious novel, but also – and more importantly, in my opinion – a wildly entertaining one, by turns hilarious and heartbreaking. Bravo, Patricia Finn!"—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath trilogy of Fool novels
“An uproarious and poignant exploration of midlife reckoning and the power of transformation.”—People
“A novel that will satisfy with its engaging storytelling, excellent pacing, and clever writing…full of ideas that could bring insight to one’s own life.”—British Columbia Review
“A tale of second chances delivered with wit and heart.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“Readers and book clubs who appreciate quiet, bittersweet stories about the lives of everyday people and fans of Elizabeth Strout and Richard Russo will want to pick this one up.”—Booklist
“Patricia Finn excels at creating set pieces, imbuing them with life, and uses them to contribute a distinctive form of dynamism that vivifies the whole…The Golden Boy wisely chooses allegory over melodrama, and atonement over redemption, honoring the idea that paradise can be neither found, nor lost, and the arc of life will always favor Napanee over Maui.”
—National Post (CAN)