Valley Stream, one of your own just wrote you back into the story.
Ed Burns, the actor and filmmaker behind “The Brothers McMullen,” released his new novel “The Marlboro Road Gang” on Tuesday, Oct. 6. It is the second book in his Marlboro Road trilogy, and it is loosely drawn from his own Long Island childhood.
The 288-page book from Seven Stories Press follows a Long Island kid in the ’80s who feels his childhood slipping away as high school gets closer. According to the publisher, the kids discover that Valley Stream and the towns around it are a lot more dangerous than they expected.
- What
- “The Marlboro Road Gang,” a novel by Ed Burns
- Publisher
- Seven Stories Press, 288 pages
- When
- Released Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026
- Series
- Book two of the Marlboro Road trilogy, after 2024’s “A Kid from Marlboro Road”
Burns stopped by NBC’s “Today” on Monday to talk about the book, where the hosts pointed out he really did live on Marlboro Road. His answer: he pulled from his life, but the characters are composites of people he has known.
The first book, his 2024 debut, followed a 12-year-old and his Irish Catholic family on Long Island in the 1970s. The new one picks up from there.
A Long Island story
Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, and grew up in Valley Stream. He shot most of “The Brothers McMullen” in his hometown, and it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1995. Since then he has written, directed and starred in 14 feature films, and he acted in “Saving Private Ryan.”
Marlboro Road never left him. His production company with longtime partner Aaron Lubin, Marlboro Road Gang Productions, has been running for two decades. Hollywood career, Long Island heart. We love to see it.
Grab a copy, read it on the LIRR, and keep it locked to WLIT.FM for more Long Islanders doing big things.
Source: Greater Long Island. Photo: Colleen Sturtevant / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
