Manchester by the Sea

The Academy Award–winning screenplay of “a drama of surpassing beauty” (Wall Street Journal) Kenneth Lonergan’s Academy Award and BAFTA–winning screenplay for the acclaimed film Manchester by the Sea is a staggering achievement and an emotionally devastating meditation on grief. Lee Chandler is a brooding, irritable loner who works as a handyman in Boston. One damp winter day he gets a call summoning him to his hometown, Manchester-by-the-Sea, the fishing village where his working-class family has lived for generations. His brother’s heart has given out suddenly, and he’s been named guardian to his riotous 16-year-old nephew. His return re-opens an unspeakable tragedy, as he is forced to confront a past that separated him from his wife, Randi, and the community where he was born and raised. A sweeping story of loss and new beginnings, Manchester by the Sea “illuminates with quiet, unyielding grace how you and I and our neighbors get by, and sometimes how we don’t” (Boston Globe). Rounding out the volume is a trenchant and incisive introduction by Kenneth Lonergan on writing for film.

The Academy Award–winning screenplay of “a drama of surpassing beauty” (Wall Street Journal) Kenneth Lonergan’s Academy Award and BAFTA–winning screenplay for the acclaimed film Manchester by the Sea is a staggering achievement and an emotionally devastating meditation on grief. Lee Chandler is a brooding, irritable loner who works as a handyman in Boston. One damp winter day he gets a call summoning him to his hometown, Manchester-by-the-Sea, the fishing village where his working-class family has lived for generations. His brother’s heart has given out suddenly, and he’s been named guardian to his riotous 16-year-old nephew. His return re-opens an unspeakable tragedy, as he is forced to confront a past that separated him from his wife, Randi, and the community where he was born and raised. A sweeping story of loss and new beginnings, Manchester by the Sea “illuminates with quiet, unyielding grace how you and I and our neighbors get by, and sometimes how we don’t” (Boston Globe). Rounding out the volume is a trenchant and incisive introduction by Kenneth Lonergan on writing for film.