Not only is WHAT HAPPENED TO THE McCRAYS? Tracey Lange’s best novel yet, it’s a resounding reminder that no one writes working-class, blue-collar characters, towns or dynamics better than her.

For the past two-and-a-half years, Kyle McCray --- born and raised in Potsdam, New York, for 39 years --- has been living a transient, disconnected life. Despite putting down meager roots in Spokane, Washington, Kyle has developed nearly no personal relationships and has severed practically every single one he left back home. Until the day that two Potsdam calls and voicemails appear on his phone, and he learns that his stalwart firefighter father, Danny, has suffered a stroke. The time has come for Kyle to return home and reckon with the destruction he left in his wake. But what would push a small-town lifer (and a high school hockey legend to boot) to leave everything he has ever known, abandoning not just his elderly father, but also his wife, his business and the friends who had sustained him his whole life?

Back in Potsdam, Kyle’s ex-wife, Casey, has been struggling as well. Although she kept the town, their friends and even Danny in the divorce, it appears that she has been overloading herself with responsibilities in an attempt to silence her pain. At 40, Casey still lives in her childhood home with her little brother, Wyatt, who is permanently disabled after a tragic car crash that took their father’s life. She teaches at the local high school, educating the children of all her former classmates who stayed --- as most people do in their working-class town --- and dedicates her free time to the school’s hockey team. The once-winning squad has suffered greatly at the hands of unreliable coaching, budget cuts and the students’ own feelings of inadequacy.

"Poignant, sharp and deeply hopeful, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE McCRAYS? is a knock-out. Lange is at the top of her game here.... Readers of Andre Dubus III, Mary Beth Keane and Ann Napolitano will find a new autobuy author in Tracey Lange."

Kyle knows that caring for his father will be difficult, but it’s not just the physical therapy and appointments that scare him. He has never been able to impress him, and he knows that Danny never thought he was good enough for Casey, an Ivy League-bound golden girl. Returning to the scene of his divorce, passing by his old business, and meeting up with everyone he disappointed or hurt is daunting enough to make a stroke seem like small potatoes. But perhaps worst of all is the knowledge that every night he must look through his father’s window at Casey’s house, where he first felt at home and where they suffered the unthinkable.

Kyle’s return to Potsdam is rocky, but despite some grumbling from his father and an intensely awkward run-in with Casey, he’s surprised to see that many of the people he worried he hurt the most have forgiven him. Mateo, a young mechanic to whom Kyle sold his auto shop, says that Kyle’s generosity changed his life; Coach Geiger, who saw Kyle through hockey championships and often acted more like a father than Danny, assures Kyle that the town still has his back, that everyone understands. But what do they understand? What happened to the McCrays?

Alternating between Kyle and Casey’s high school romance and early marriage, and the present, Tracey Lange paints a visceral, vivid portrait of small-town life: the lifers who see no other way, despite the limits of small-town resources and financial support; those who become trapped by marriages and children; and the people like Wyatt who dream of more but are prevented from leaving due to disabilities and familial limitations. Potsdam is community-minded, built on strong foundations and storied histories, but with those ties come expectations. For people like Kyle, they can be smothering.

But Potsdam is only the setting of this brilliant work. The shining current that propels the novel is the love affair between Kyle and Casey, right down to the event that shattered them and their reunion.

As Kyle adapts to life in Potsdam, the town’s forgiveness and his desperate need for reckoning and redemption come to a head when he is asked to coach the hockey team, a union that the town seems to hope will help build up both parties. But with proximity to the team comes proximity to Casey, and it’s not just Kyle’s guilt that stands between them. Casey is also full of regret and, like Kyle, is too stubborn and independent-minded to acknowledge it. Still, you can never unknow a person, and with nearly two decades of a shared life between them, even their broken hearts are not enough to completely undo everything that ties them together.

Poignant, sharp and deeply hopeful, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE McCRAYS? is a knock-out. Lange is at the top of her game here. She is able to characterize and bring to life hockey team dynamics, working-class, blue-collar life, and visceral, heart-wrenching pain, all while maintaining --- and delivering on --- the promise of redemption. Kyle is the perfect antihero, but the only thing dooming him is himself as he believes he is irredeemable and unworthy of forgiveness. Paired with Casey’s no-nonsense approach and deep, hidden sadness, his love for her and hate for himself feels combustible, which is the best kind of chemistry. Add to that Lange’s ability to chronicle her characters’ growth without overwriting or being overly sentimental, and you have a true masterpiece, a book that feels like a new classic.

Readers of Andre Dubus III, Mary Beth Keane and Ann Napolitano will find a new autobuy author in Tracey Lange. Established fans will know that WHAT HAPPENED TO THE McCRAYS? is no fluke. Lange was born to write this.