Lucy by the Sea

A Novel

By: Elizabeth Strout

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of My Name is Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge comes a “poised and moving” (Vogue)novel about a divorced couple stuck together during lockdown—and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart.

“Strout’s understanding of the human condition is capacious.”—NPR

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Time, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, PopSugar, She Reads

With her trademark spare, crystalline prose—a voice infused with “intimate, fragile, desperate humanness” (The Washington Post)—Elizabeth Strout turns her exquisitely tuned eye to the inner workings of the human heart, following the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton through the early days of the pandemic.

As 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 on-again, off-again friend, William. 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.

Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. 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.

Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize

For Strout fans only

I always get something out of her books but this one not a favorite. I don't know if the character of Lucy merits this many books. Also, I wonder if Covid has become the third rail for novelists.

Another great book by ES

What a gem. I thought it might be too soon but it was ok. It was quiet, even reverent to our shared experience of the last several years. You will recognize some old character friends and also realize some of the characters are living right along side of you. Some in your own family.

Life's Overview

A gentle story of how one woman moves through life's constant and variable challenges. Marriage, separation, daughters and their relationships are all there in the setting of the Covid pandemic's impact on New York City and Maine. Interwoven is an insightful picture of aging's effects. Joys and sadness realistically portrayed.

Lucy by the sea

Enjoyed the story immensely. The reader however had strange inflections at times which made it hard to capture the feelings being discussed. Overall it was great .

Poor narrator

The enunciation of syllables was annoying, and the pacing too slow. I had to listen to it at 1.4 to 1.45 speed levels. She was also boring.
The story was dull at most times, and the sentence structure was almost elementary-school level.
I was moved by the few insights the author shared.