Mindy the Book Yenta

Mindy Holland

Boy From The North Country

By Sam Sussman

Literary stars: ★★★★ Jewish stars: ✡✡✡

I picked up Boy From The North Country because it connects two subjects that interest me: Judaism and upstate New York. The title references Bob Dylan’s 1963 song “Girl from the North Country,” which later inspired a jukebox musical of the same name. I saw the show at Proctors in 2023, and it ranks among my least favorite productions I’ve ever seen.

Fictionalized autobiography

Fortunately, I had the opposite reaction to this newly released book. Author Sam Sussman bears a unmistakable resemblance to a young Bob Dylan. The novel is a fictionalized autobiographical account a 26 year old’s quest to finally uncover the truth about his paternity.

Evan, the protagonist, is close to his mother, June who still lives in Goshen, N.Y., where she raised her only child. For those of us in the Capital District, Goshen, near Woodstock, hardly seems like the North Country. But the rural nature of their community in contrast to life in New York City makes the title work. Living abroad, Evan video chats with his mother once a week. Then, one day, he receives an unexpected news: His mother has cancer, and for the first time, she is ready to accept her son’s help.

Evan doesn’t hesitate. He flies home, eager to assist his mother. This is not your typical “my parents are crazy” memoir. Evan fully supports his mom holistic approach to living and is a vegan himself. He respects his mother’s choices.

Relatable health crisis

As Evan and June spend time together in hospitals and chemotherapy rooms, June begins sharing stories about her time with Bob Dylan. This was not the part of the story that kept me turning the pages. I was far more captivated by the raw emotions of watching a loved one’s health decline. I could relate to the difficult choices family members must make and to those gut-wrenching moments when you suddenly realize that you are now the adult in the room.

The parent-child relationship is a recurring theme throughout Boy From The North Country. The sexual assaults June experienced affected her relationship with her own mother. They reconnect only after June became a mother herself. Now, as June’s health deteriorates, Evan must navigate his own evolving relationship with his secretive mother, as well as with his Bubbie, his maternal grandmother.

Jewish identity questions

References to Judaism are woven throughout the book. Evan recounts the anti-Semitic incidents he experienced in high school and how utterly unprepared he felt to respond to them. He searches for meaning in Judaism, questioning his connection to Jewish identity when he was neither circumcised nor raised with a Jewish education.

Each time I had to put the book down, I looked forward to picking it up again. This is an emotionally challenging read, filled with moments that may hit particularly close to home for those of us navigating relationships with adult children or coping with the declining health of our own parents. Sussman captures the vulnerability, uncertainty, and heartbreak that accompany these experiences with striking honesty.

Sussman’s book was published in 2026, nearly a decade after the events he recounts. I can understand why he needed that distance before putting such a personal story into words. Some experiences require time and perspective before we can begin to make sense of them, much less share them with others.

Boy From The North Country is ultimately about much more than the mystery of a famous musician’s possible connection to a family. It is about the questions we ask our parents, the answers we may never receive, and the complicated ways we come to understand our families—and ourselves.

More on Sam Sussman, who may be Bob Dylan’s biological son!

https://www.timesofisrael.com/sam-sussmans-novel-turns-mystery-of-whether-bob-dylan-is-his-father-into-ode-to-his-mother/

Mindy Miner Holland is a school librarian at Shenendehowa Schools. She is the board chairwoman of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern NY. She is a past president of Congregation Gates of Heaven. She earned her master’s degree in library science from the University at Albany.