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AudioBook information:
Author: Rowan Beaird
Narrated by: Evan Sibley, Katharine Chin, Pete Cross
Release date: July 21, 2026
Audiobook Duration: 9 h 24 min
Summary: “INTOXICATING…You’ll find yourself turning page after page, utterly swept up in the heady spell it casts.” —Megan Abbott, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author
This program features multicast narration.
From the beloved author of The Divorcées comes a novel set in the 1970s during an island wedding, where the bride has recently left a sinister cult that might still be trailing her
On a remote island off the coast of Virginia, family and friends gather to celebrate the wedding of Shay O’Connor and Andrew Pruitt. From the moment the guests arrive, all they can whisper about is the bride, who recently left the headline-making cult Synanon. Why would someone like Shay, an Ivy League graduate with a wealthy, doting fiancée, join Synanon? And has she really escaped their grasp?
Told from the interwoven perspectives of Shay’s brother William, her longtime friend Joel, and Shay herself, Tenderness is a slow-burn mystery that excavates dark family histories and romantic regrets. As the wedding day approaches, Joel and William pull at the loose threads of Shay’s story, and it becomes clear there is an even greater threat on the island than the secrets each character is keeping from one another.
Set in the tinderbox of the 1970s, Tenderness is a lit match, bringing hidden truths to light and asking if we can ever see ourselves or the people we love for who they truly are.
Reviews:
Praise for Tenderness
A Most Anticipated Book (Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Review of Books, CrimeReads, Newcity Lit)
“The Wedding People meets The White Lotus…in this gripping new page-turner…Told from multiple perspectives, the story uncovers dark family secrets and a mysterious threat on the island.”
―People
“A lush, atmospheric look at privilege, love, and the things we do for inner peace.”
―Chicago Magazine
“Tenderness is an astute study of human behavior, and a complex portrait of a resonant era.”
―CrimeReads
“Excellent…. [Beaird] achieves a low, ominous hum throughout its tale of an island wedding off the Virginia coast.”
―Chicago Tribune
“At this wedding on a remote island off the coast of Virginia, the bride is all anyone can talk about, though not for the typical reasons: Ivy League graduate Shay O’Connor recently left a notorious cult–but has she really escaped? And what else simmers beneath the surface in this tense family drama?”
―Forbes
“A master of the slow burn thriller…Tight and introspective with a wonderfully combustible cast of characters, Tenderness is sure to be your go-to summer read.”
―Chicago Review of Books
“The novel’s settings…become characters in themselves, their vibrant detail enhancing an already suspenseful plot. Both a dark suspense novel and a compelling story of biological and found family, Tenderness will take a firm hold on the seeker in us all.”
―BookPage
“A mystery from the first page to the last…The family’s secrets threaten to spill over as anticipation builds, and the result is a novel that feels like a true event, written with snappy prose and a pace that stretches out the mystery but never feels too slow. This book is great for readers who love complicated entanglements and secrets galore.”
―Booklist
“Simmering…Beaird crafts a mesmerizing meditation on the corrosive power of self-deception that will have even experienced suspense readers holding their breath. It’s a satisfying slow burn.”
―Publishers Weekly
“Sly, elegant and menacing, Rowan Beaird’s Tenderness is an intoxicating tale of love and danger, terror and deceit. You’ll find yourself turning page after page, utterly swept up in the heady spell it casts, and the emotional heft that rises to an astonishing crescendo.”
―Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout
“Tenderness has the page-turning drive of a thoughtful thriller, but with the guts and heart of the best Ann Patchett family novels. Rowan Beaird knows how to get inside the messy connective tissue between siblings, between lovers, between parents and children, and drill down to the truth there, in graceful, piercing prose. Tenderness is completely captivating.”
―Emily Everett, author of Reese’s Book Club pick All That Life Can Afford
“Tenderness, Rowan Beaird’s indelible latest, is a taut, atmospheric novel set against the encroaching sea and the uneasy glow of privilege. A sense of unease saturates the proceedings, with each character on the cusp of a decision that will alter the course of their life. Tenderness explores the tides of intimacy, the edges of family, and the missed moments we try desperately to catch before they slip away into the unseen beyond.”
―Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, author of Alice Sadie Celine
“Tenderness is a delicately rendered story about an intimate group of young people scrambling for purchase in an uncertain time. Beaird’s gorgeous prose, as well as her capacious view of the human condition, had me riveted from page one.”
―Hannah Pittard, author of If You Love It, Let It Kill You
“In Tenderness, Rowan Beaird is in total command. Lush and disquieting and impossible to shake, I finished Tenderness in one sitting, heart pounding, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Evocative and hot to the touch, this is the sort of novel I’m always looking for.”
―Chelsea Bieker, bestselling author of Madwoman and Godshot
About the Author:
Rowan Beaird’s fiction has appeared in The Southern Review, Ploughshares, and Gulf Coast. She lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter. The DivorcĂ©es is her first novel.