“Strout excels at distilling complex human emotions — fear of failure, regret that we never measured up — into something familiar and understandable.… Lucy By The Sea holds its own as an engaging and relatable story, where human bonds of love and meaning — over-examined and frayed as they may become in crisis — still serve as the essence of what makes us feel we matter and belong.”
Anne Eliot Feldman, “Long-Divorced Lucy Barton Finds Love During Pandemic,” BookTrib, September 19th, 2022.“In Lucy by the Sea, [Strout] continues to conceal her art in seeming artlessness and gives us a world in which nothing stands to reason or allows for easy expression. ”
Pico Iyer, “A Journal of the Plague Year,” Air Mail, September 17, 2022.“In its emotional heft and honesty, its ability to go fearlessly to the darkest places, its pellucid empathy and its spot-on rendering of the pandemic experience for both individuals and the country, [Lucy by the Sea] is perhaps the best of the four marvelous novels Strout has written featuring Lucy Barton.”
Pricilla Gilman, “Getting to the heart of the matter: Elizabeth Strout returns with the pandemic novel we need now,” Boston Globe, September 15, 2022.
“No-one writes interior life as Strout does. This is meticulous observed writing, full of probing psychological insight. Lucy Barton is one of literature’s immortal characters – brittle, damaged, unravelling, vulnerable and most of all, ordinary, like us all.”
Profile and collection of features including written interviews, an article on the Lucy Barton series, a Reading Guide (for bookclubs and individual readers), a video Q&A with readers, and two short videos featuring Anna Friel reading extracts from Oh William!
“Elizabeth Strout,” Authors, the Booker Prize Library, The Booker Prizes website, September 6, 2022.
“With Oh William! shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2022, we spoke to Elizabeth Strout about her intimate characterisation, the importance of listening and what’s next for Lucy Barton.”
“‘Elizabeth Strout interview: 'I could feel myself getting better with each story',” Features, The Booker Library, The Booker Prizes website, September 6, 2022.Sign up for Elizabeth’s newsletter, with exclusive content from Elizabeth to her readers.