This is a tremendous book of autofiction. Sam Sussman was a Dylan doppelganger and, eventually, an admirer of his music. Turns out, his mother had had a relationship with Dylan long before Sam's birth. This fact served as a constant thrum for Sam, a quiet boy with aspirations to be a writer. And now Sam is out with his first novel and it's about a boy named Evan who is, wait for it, a Dylan doppelganger. The book appears to hew close to Sam's own life. I know this because Sam wrote a great essay for Harpers about his Dylanesque looks & affect, and the book & essay run on seemingly parallel tracks. Had "Boy From the North Country" emerged solely from Sussman's imagination, readers would certainly be captivated by the story & writing. The fact that the book emerged from his own lived experience makes the book even more engrossing.

I approached this book without any prior knowledge, and I’m incredibly glad I did. It’s a profoundly touching story about the bond between a mother and her son as she faces an unexpected and terminal battle with cancer. The narrative unfolds over several decades, delving into the mother’s life and struggles, which ultimately shape her present self and the profound connection she shares with her son.

I’m astounded that this is the author’s debut work. I’m already eager to explore more of their writing. Their storytelling prowess is evident, and they captivated me from the very first page.

“Boy from the North Country” by Sam Sussman is a deeply moving story about the relationship between mothers and their sons. It is clearly the author’s personal story as he cares for his mother while she battles a life ending cancer diagnosis. You can feel the author’s grief in every written word as he travels along side her while she explains the complex stories of her life, uncovers hidden family secrets, and hopefully discloses the authors unknown celebrity paternity.
The novel is graphic in its detail and a bit disjointed, but for me it was a story worth telling as so many of us can relate to the authors care taker role, and his lesson of not asking the crucial question while he still had the opportunity to ask.

Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP The Penguin Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Net Galley and Penguin books for an ARC of Boy from the North Country. I read the description of this book and knew I would be interested immediately because there is a Bob Dylan sub plot. This book was so much more than that. It is a beautifully written story about the love between a mother and her son. The main character, Evan returns to his childhood home at the age of 26 to care for his terminally ill mother. They bond during this time-Evan learns a lot about his mom as well as himself. I can't recommend this book enough! 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Press for the ebook. Twenty-six year old Evan left the farmhouse in New York that he grew up with his mother June and the various men in her life. After spending time in Berlin and Israel, Evan is in London, grappling with a 900 plus page novel that mirrors his life that he can’t make work, when he’s called home to help June through her cancer treatments. Once home, June finally tell him about her life in NYC when she was a young woman, studying acting with a legendary acting teacher, becomes the star of a underground sensation of a play and studying painting with an almost mystical teacher who attracts Bob Dylan who is somewhat lost as he’s trying to put the songs together for the album Blood On The Tracks and finds help in June.

Thanks for the advance read. I enjoyed the story and always enjoy a new author. Good luck with the book

I adored the ‘Boy from the North Country’.
From the very first page I was engaged in this story of mother and son and a life of learning, loving, protection and the search for answers.
Sam Sussman took me on a journey of experiences and emotions. The prose made the landscape, the characters and the intimacy palpable. I was immersed in the world of Evan and his mother and cared for them.
This is so much more than a story, this is a life lesson that we can identify with and learn from.
Sam Sussman, thank you for enriching my life with this gorgeous read. Highly and happily recommended.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

Thanks to the Penguin Group and NetGalley for providing an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I like the book until the last few chapters. I was planning to give it 4 stars. Unfortunately, the author descended into a lot of unnecessary and repetitive "telling". He failed to trust the reader to figure things out along with the narrator, and those hospital sections are way too long. A pity, because, with a little more careful editing and writing, this would be a 5 star book.

It may still be popular where memoir and death and dying or caretaking stories are popular.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Boy from the North Country by Sam Sussman.

This book was interesting, because after reading it, and then reading the acknowledgments, it was clear that this story essentially WAS the story of the author. However, he writes it as a piece of fiction, with the main character given a different name. Perhaps it was to create some distance between himself and a story that must have caused him so much pain.

I believe this story to be a love story to his mother, being told by 26 year old Evan, a man who's been told his whole life that he looks like Bob Dylan, and given his mom's rich history, might actually be his son. During Evan's stay with his mom, he learns more about her life life, his legacy, and his undying love for her. It's as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking. I enjoyed every page.

And yes, Sam Sussman looks A LOT like Bob Dylan.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A young man returns home to care for his mother after she receives a cancer diagnosis.

Review of Boy from the North Country by Sam Sussman

Sam Sussman’s debut novel, Boy from the North Country, is clearly a deeply personal work—one shaped by grief, memory, and the aching desire to understand a parent more fully before it’s too late. The premise is compelling: a son returns home to his dying mother and uncovers long-held secrets about her past, including a possible romantic connection to Bob Dylan and the truth of his own origins. At its core, this is a story about the bond between mother and son, the fragility of life, and the search for identity.

It’s evident that writing this novel was a cathartic experience for Sussman, particularly as he processed the loss of his own mother. That emotional depth does come through in places, especially in the tender moments between Evan and June as her health declines. Unfortunately, the power of those scenes is often diluted by a tendency toward repetition and overly graphic detail.

Certain descriptions—like repeated mentions of June’s auburn hair, the physical deterioration of her body, and the narrator’s own unwashed state—felt unnecessarily excessive and, at times, distracting. The rawness may have been intended to evoke intimacy or realism, but instead, it bordered on discomfort without adding much emotional or narrative weight. Some moments, like detailed references to body odor or bodily functions, seemed more jarring than poignant.

Structurally, the novel also struggles to maintain cohesion. The story occasionally veers off into historical and cultural commentary—particularly about Jewish history—that, while potentially interesting on their own, felt shoehorned in rather than organically woven into the narrative. These digressions disrupted the emotional arc and made the story feel scattered.

Ultimately, while Boy from the North Country offers moments of heartfelt reflection and explores meaningful themes of family, identity, and loss, it is hampered by uneven pacing, overindulgent prose, and disjointed storytelling. Sussman clearly has a story worth telling, and I respect the vulnerability it took to tell it—but this debut may have benefitted from a firmer editorial hand.