The Golden Boy

By: Patricia Finn

Narrated by: Jason Culp

"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

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.

Critic reviews

“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

Audible made it REAL

I loved the way this book was told present and past. Understanding childhood trauma made the whole thing a very tender story. Agnes and Stafford proved that relationships not wealth matter in the end. Loneliness truly is the worst disease.

Confused

Still not even sure what happened in this story, I guess I need to cliff notes. Is Kelly thier daughter mad at them for really being bad parents what up with his lung thing, where and what happened to the kids they inherited???

Non-stop bickering.

I was ready to love this book, having read an article about the author in the New York Times -- a lovely, insightful, highly likeable woman realizing her life-long dream of polishing and publishing her novel after many years of doing many other things. But after two hours of listening, I'm so fed up with the caustic sniping between the husband and wife who are the main characters, I'm throwing in the towel. It's just too painful to listen to. Even if there's an epiphany for one or both of them just around the corner, as I'm sure there must be, I dislike both of them so much, I don't care. Returning this one.

Tedious

Needed another edit. Got very bogged down in the middle. The pacing was incredibly slow. This took away from a good story with potentially moving characters. The whole thing fell flat.