A High-Society Lawyer and a Hedge Funder Got Divorced. The Result Is the Best Memoir I've Read in Some Time.

"but there's something comforting about knowing that even an ultrarich woman can't make a man act right. You can come from a good family, bring a couple of enormous trusts into the marriage, make some kids, build homes in both New York City and Martha's Vineyard if you'd like, but he'll still leave if he wants to. There's something relieving in that obviousness, in that inevitability, as if no one can truly get heterosexual marriage right, even those with all the resources in the world."

"passed. Instead, she ended up sheltering in place with two of her three kids, alone: James left her for another woman. Perhaps worse, he had no interest in shared custody or co-parenting of their teen and preteen children. He didn't even get an apartment with enough bedrooms for the kids. It was cold, abnormal, and, according to Burden, entirely sudden."

"Strangers originates in part from "Was I Married to a Stranger?," a New York Times Modern Love column from 2023. "I still have no understanding of why my husband left," she wrote at the time. "His strangeness only increased, becoming an adversary in the divorce process." But Burden does know what happened in her marriage. In fact, she writes about it with matter-of-fact precision throughout Strangers, even if she keeps repeating"

An ultrarich woman retreats to Martha's Vineyard with her husband and children at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her husband, a Manhattan asset manager with high-society connections but less family wealth, abruptly leaves for another woman. He refuses meaningful shared custody and shows no interest in co-parenting their teen and preteen children. The woman ends up sheltering in place with two of their three kids in a cold, abnormal domestic situation. The husband does not secure an apartment with enough bedrooms for the children and becomes adversarial during the divorce process. The woman reports having no understanding of why he left and describes his behavior as increasingly strange.

Read at Slate Magazine