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Lucy by the Sea

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Lucy by the Sea

By: Elizabeth Strout
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

FROM THE BOOKER-SHORTLISTED, PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR

'It is a gift in this life that we do not know what awaits us'

In March 2020 Lucy Barton's ex-husband William pleads with her to leave New York and escape to a coastal house he has rented in Maine. Lucy reluctantly agrees, leaving the washing-up in the sink, expecting to be back in a week or two. Weeks turn into months, and it's just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the sea.

Rich with empathy and a searing clarity, Lucy by the Sea evokes the fragility and uncertainty of the recent past, as well as the possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this miraculous novel are the deep human connections that sustain us, even as the world seems to be falling apart.

'A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own' Hilary Mantel

'A terrific writer' Zadie Smith

'I cannot get Lucy Barton out of my head' The Times

'She gets better with each book' Maggie O'Farrell

© Elizabeth Strout 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 City Life Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural Urban Women's Fiction Inspiring Feel-Good Heartfelt

Critic reviews

Stunningly universal . . . with brilliant acuity, Strout has seized on the parallels between Lucy Barton's pervasive sense of alienation and the way the recent global crisis has exposed the helplessness felt by ordinary people everywhere
[Strout's] novels, intricately and painstakingly crafted, overlap and intertwine to create an instantly recognizable fictional landscape . . . you don't so much read a Strout novel as inhabit it
A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own (Hilary Mantel)
I cannot get Lucy Barton out of my head
Strout's portrait of a divorced couple united by worry for their two grown daughters illuminates a refreshingly unexplored angle of Covid . . . They leap off the page along with their creator's salty wit and a phantom scent of hand sanitizer
Elizabeth Strout is one of my very favourite writers (Ann Patchett)
It's no secret that Elizabeth Strout is a stunning writer, but I still find myself amazed at the depth she brings to the world of her stories centered on Lucy Barton (Taylor Jenkins Reid)
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)
An unflinching depiction of the ways we are all alone . . . Strout's most distinctive skill - the ability to render every character, big or small, with precision - is on full display . . . Lucy finds love in the novel, but Strout never looks away from the loneliness that is inherent in being human: "We all live with people - and places - and things that we have given great weight to. But we are all weightless in the end." (Sarah Collins)
[Strout] has that rare ability to immerse readers in the world of her characters . . . moments of quiet revelation - infidelities, or glimpses into the indignities of incontinence and cancer - feel poignant and real, but also unsentimental. It is a compassionate, life-affirming read, and a much-needed balm for these trying times
All stars
Most relevant
The narration is wonderful and the book is wonderful and once again Elizabeth Strout has excelled with her incredible writing. I loved this and am really sad I have finished it. Fabulous.

Wonderful

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She has the pandemic down perfectly. Listening to her bought it all back even though it was another country - and with all her usual panache. A very enjoyable listen.

I love Lucy

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Beautifully read, a simple yet uplifting story.
As good as Olive Kitteridge
Going to read her others now

Great book

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I absolutely loved this. Bitter sweet and beautifully read. I’m going to listen to all the rest now

Perfect marriage of narrator and book

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This was my first Elizabeth Strout novel and although it took a while to pull me in, on my second time picking it up I came to love it. Beautifully observed characters and their thoughts on the nature of life following the ups and downs of youth and middle age into their later years - all set against the events of the pandemic and recent American political and social debates. So strange reading about the pandemic so vividly when we all seem to have collective amnesia about how different our lives were only a year or two ago; but I found it strangely therapeutic to go through it again. I ended up loving Lucy. And the narration is just perfect

Touching and well observed

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