What Boys Learn

A twisty, jaw-dropping psychological thriller that unravels a mother’s worst nightmare--that her child is capable of terrible violence--when her teenage son becomes a suspect in the murder of two classmates, from the author of The Deepest Lake.

Over one terrible weekend, two teenage girls are found dead in a wealthy Chicago suburb. As the community mourns, Abby Rosso, the girls’ high school counselor, begins to suspect that her son was secretly involved in their lives--and possibly, their deaths.

Abby doesn’t want to believe Benjamin hurt anyone. But she’s seen the warning signs before. Two decades ago, her brother was imprisoned for a disturbing crime--he was only a little older than Benjamin is now. And Abby has more troubling memories from her own adolescence that confirm what boys and men are capable of. As Abby searches for the truth about what happened to her students, she’s forced to face the question: Has she been making excuses for Benjamin for years?

Swirling with sharp questions about family and masculinity, What Boys Learn unravels a mother’s worst fears.

Andromeda Romano-Lax is the author of six novels translated into eleven languages, including The Spanish Bow, a New York Times Editors’ Choice; Annie and the Wolves, selected by Booklist as a Top Ten Historical Novel of the Year; and The Deepest Lake, a Barnes & Noble Monthly Pick. Her novels reflect her interest in topics as varied as art acquisition during the Nazi era (The Detour), psychological scandals of the 1920s (Behave), and artificial intelligence and the future of eldercare (Plum Rains). Born in Chicago, she lived in Alaska (where she co-founded 49 Writers), Taiwan, and Mexico before settling on a small island in British Columbia, Canada.