At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart-the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love. Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear, struggles, and isolation that come with life in a global pandemic, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea. With her trademark spare, crystalline prose, Elizabeth Strout once again turns her exquisitely-tuned eye to the inner workings of the human heart, this time following the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton and Oh William! through the early days of the pandemic.Īs a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and longtime friend, William. ' The many things we do not know until it is too late.From Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout comes a poignant, pitch-perfect novel about a former couple in lockdown together-and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart. At the heart of this story is the unforgettable, indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who once again offers a profound, lasting reflection on the mystery of existence. Oh William! captures the joy and sorrow of watching children grow up and start families of their own of discovering family secrets, late in life, that alter everything we think we know about those closest to us and the way people live and love, against all odds. Recalling their college years, the birth of theirĭaughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a tender, complex, decades-long partnership.

A surprise encounter leads her to reconnect with William, her first husband - and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante. Lucy Barton is a successful writer living in New York, navigating the second half of her life as a recent widow and parent to two adult daughters. The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-longlisted, bestselling author returns to her beloved heroine Lucy Barton in a luminous novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any point in life.

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