Lucy by the Sea: From the Booker-shortlisted author of Oh William!

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No novelist working today has Strout’s extraordinary capacity for radical empathy, for seeing the essence of people beyond reductive categories, for uniting us without sentimentality.I didn’t just love Lucy by the Sea; I needed it.May droves of readers come to feel enlarged, comforted, and genuinely uplifted by Lucy’s story.” — The Boston Globe Lucy by the Sea holds a mirror up to everything we have been through recently. Not only reflecting disbelief, isolation and how different and at the same time similar we are to each other, but also what happens to human relationships when we can't be together. Superb Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. And Strout is similarly astute on the eternal compromises of love, marriage and ex-marriage. Finding herself in such sudden and perpetual close proximity with the man who was once her husband, Lucy sometimes finds she cannot stand him. William isn’t as emotionally available as the male neighbour she takes walks with, William doesn’t like watching her floss her teeth, and, she now recalls, William “does not like to hear anything negative”. But he is, she admits, often able to get through to their daughters in ways she cannot. Reflective. Melancholy. Hopeful. Insightful. How would you describe the tone of Lucy by the Sea, and why?

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout review – lockdown

My concern with this book was to get the pacing right, because time felt altered during the pandemic, and this is essential to catch, and also to have things happen, because a lot did not happen during this time. But it turned out there were all sorts of things to occupy Lucy and William… William is my first husband; we were married for twenty years and we have been divorced for about that long as well. We are friendly, I would see him intermittently; we both were living in New York City, where we came when we first married. But because my (second) husband had died and his (third) wife had left him, I had seen him more this past year.

Poised and moving . . . It is only in the steady hands of Strout, whose prose has an uncanny, plainspoken elegance, that you will want to relive those early months of wiping down groceries and social isolation . . . This is a slim, beautifully controlled book that bursts with emotion Vogue Discuss Lucy's relationship with her ex-husband, William. Why do you think they have remained in each other's lives for so long? Were you satisfied with how they ended up?

Lucy by the Sea: From the Booker-shortlisted author of Oh

The book begins with Lucy’s scientist ex-husband, William, convincing her to leave New York as the pandemic takes hold of the city. They flee to a coastal house in Maine, rented from his friend Bob Burgess. Lucy views the trip as short-term, but the weeks turn into years. What follows is a retrospective narrative of sorts, told in short, vignette-style sections that show the isolation, connections, small surprises and inevitable losses of the pandemic. I really did understand. In the start of things, we knew it was bad, and I had found the story about the small Italian town that was completely decimated by it early on. But what we didn't know was 'how long will this go on"? ... - pnelson384Lucy by the Sea has an anecdotal surface that belies a firm underlying structure. It is meant to feel like life—random, surprising, occasionally lit with flashes of larger meaning—but it is art.” — The New Yorker Lucy By the Sea is another Barton installment that confronts the deep and familiar tangles of intimate relationships . . . Through this complex and isolating time, Lucy plumbs the nuances of human connection TIME MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window) Inspired by the true events surrounding the destruction of the town, Iola, in the 1960’s, this story tells of hardship, loss, courage and resilience. Story begins on a small peach ranch in Iola, Colorado. The Gunnison River is damned, the town is flooded, and a reservoir built. Prior to this, Victoria, 17, encounters young Wilson Moon, by chance and falls for him. She gets pregnant and tragedy strikes. She isolates herself in a small hut in the mountains, where she struggles in the wilderness. Alone, she has the baby and gives him up to a young woman who, by chance is stopped in the woods with a newborn baby of her own. Character development superb and the writer is truly gifted. Example- “my insides were tumbling like pebbles in a stream.” She is able to describe the beautiful, harsh landscape so that you feel that you are there. A must read!