My Name Is Lucy Barton cover art

My Name Is Lucy Barton

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge

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My Name Is Lucy Barton

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

Brought to you by Penguin.

A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE & THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

An exquisite story of mothers and daughters from the Pulitzer prize-winning author of Olive Kitteridge

Lucy is recovering from an operation in a New York hospital when she wakes to find her estranged mother sitting by her bed. They have not seen one another in years. As they talk Lucy finds herself recalling her troubled rural childhood and how it was she eventually arrived in the big city, got married and had children. But this unexpected visit leaves her doubting the life she's made: wondering what is lost and what has yet to be found.

The story continues in Anything is Possible, Oh William! and Lucy by the Sea, available to read now!

'A terrific writer' Zadie Smith

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

'So good it gave me goosebumps. One of the best writers in America' Sunday Times

© Elizabeth Strout 2016 (P) Penguin Audio 2016

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Critic Reviews

A novel of shining integrity and humour (Alice Munro on 'Amy and Isabelle')
As perfect a novel as you could ever read (Evening Standard on 'Olive Kitteridge')
My God - she is fun to read (Richard Bausch)
As ambitious as Philip Roth's American Pastoral but more intimate in tone. (Time Magazine on 'The Burgess Boys')
Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force (The New Yorker on 'Olive Kitteridge')
Strout's prose propels the story forward with moments of startlingly poetic clarity. (The New Yorker on 'The Burgess Boys')
One of those rare, invigorating books that take an apparently familiar world and peer into it with ruthless intimacy, revealing a strange and startling place. (The New York Times Book Review on 'Amy and Isabelle')
Strout's greatly anticipated second novel . . . is an answered prayer. (Vanity Fair on 'Abide With Me')
Elizabeth Strout writes beautifully about the compromises and small joys of what we might call mature people. Delicate, nuanced, insightful, and profoundly moving, Olive Kitteridge provides exactly the pleasures and the depths of feeling that I crave when I read fiction (Ann Packer on 'Olive Kitteridge')
All stars
Most relevant
Lovely writing. Concise story lovely characters. not more can be wanted or needed ffrom a novel.

Strout at her best

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Loved the structure of the novel
The challenges in life & the understanding of the importance of love & family however destructive & painful, understanding & empathy & unknowns important themes

Living a Life

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I enjoyed this book for the most part. Short and well written with astute character analysis, but after falling in love with Olive Kettering and Olive Again this book dimmed a little bit. I felt I didn't really know Lucy so well by the end. Oh, William, which I will be reading might shed some light.

Good, but not as good as Olive books.

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I preferred the Oh William and then Lucy by the Sea. Absolutely would enjoy other novels by Elizabeth Strout

Enjoyable

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Elizabeth Stroud has written an intimate book with such strength that it will stay with me for many years. I'm am already on to Olive Kitteridge.

Brilliant book and brilliant performance

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