My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel
Written by Elizabeth Strout
Narrated by Kimberly Farr
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post • The New York Times Book Review • NPR • BookPage • LibraryReads • Minneapolis Star Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Look for Elizabeth Strout's highly anticipated new work of fiction, Anything Is Possible, which is available for pre-order now.
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn't spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy's childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy's life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.
Praise for My Name Is Lucy Barton
"There is not a scintilla of sentimentality in this exquisite novel. Instead, in its careful words and vibrating silences, My Name Is Lucy Barton offers us a rare wealth of emotion, from darkest suffering to-'I was so happy. Oh, I was happy'-simple joy."-Claire Messud, The New York Times Book Review
"Spectacular . . . Smart and cagey in every way. It is both a book of withholdings and a book of great openness and wisdom. . . . [Strout] is in supreme and magnificent command of this novel at all times."-Lily King, The Washington Post
"A short novel about love, particularly the complicated love between mothers and daughters, but also simpler, more sudden bonds . . . It evokes these connections in a style so spare, so pure and so profound the book almost seems to be a kind of scripture or sutra, if a very down-to-earth and unpretentious one."-Marion Winik, Newsday
"Potent with distilled emotion. Without a hint of self-pity, Strout captures the ache of loneliness we all feel sometimes."-Time
"An aching, illuminating look at mother-daughter devotion."-People
"A quiet, sublimely merciful contemporary novel about love, yearning, and resilience in a family damaged beyond words."-The Boston Globe
"Sensitive, deceptively simple . . . It is Lucy's gentle honesty, complex relationship with her husband, and nuanced response to her mother's shortcomings that make this novel so subtly powerful. . . . [It's] more complex than it first appears, and all the more emotionally persuasive for it."-San Francisco Chronicle
"Strout maps the complex terrain of human relationships by focusing on that which is often unspoken and only implied. . . . A powerful addition to Strout's body of work."-The Seattle Times
"[Strout] reminds us of the power of our stories-and our ability to transcend our troubled narratives."-Miami Herald
"Magnificent."-Ann Patchett
Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Burgess Boys; Olive Kitteridge, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; the national bestseller Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London.
Related to My Name Is Lucy Barton
Related audiobooks
Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Falconer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death in the Fifth Position Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Last Wish (A Kaylie Brooks Psychological Suspense Thriller—Book 3) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spine Intact, Some Creases: Remembrances of a Paperback Writer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLast Shot (A Kaylie Brooks Psychological Suspense Thriller—Book 4) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Show Me a Sign (Show Me a Sign Trilogy, Book 1) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive's Tour of the Bookshops of Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Chance (A Kaylie Brooks Psychological Suspense Thriller—Book 2) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celeste Ng And Maxine Hong Kingston Answer Your Questions About "The Woman Warrior" Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fast-Draft Your Memoir: Write Your Life Story in 45 Hours Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Building Bridges: Stephen King Live at the National Book Awards Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Baptized in Tear Gas: From White Moderate to Abolitionist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a Writer's Week Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long History Of Presidents As Authors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRosetown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Growing Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Thought My Father Was God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Things Reconsidered: How Rethinking What We Know Helps Us Know What We Believe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mantel Pieces: Royal Bodies and Other Writing from the London Review of Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Need to Be Whole Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reluctant Witness: Discovering the Delight of Spiritual Conversations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Praying for Mrs. Mombasa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLive Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Covenant of Water Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beneath a Scarlet Sky: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for My Name Is Lucy Barton
68 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is engrossing, the characters are believable, well developed
and interesting. Listened to the audiobook at every opportunity. Well worth my time and attention. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Powerful. Haunting. Keenly observant. The audio version is, quite simply, terrific.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I love how Lucy & her mother had unspoken love for one another. But I think her mother was just a stubborn old broad. Although, it also makes me think about how different everyone is raised up. Growing up doesn't always mean that you're always put together. Everyone has their own trials and tribulations.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Captivating character story. Heartbreaking yet warm and inviting. The author has a wonderful handle on the culture of poverty.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A low paced novel where not much action, but the writing... oh my God!! it's gorgeous and contemplative and it makes you ache. I really enjoyed the narrator as well, her voice was perfect as Lucy Barton.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a masterpiece of writing. It snuck up on me and landed in my belly. So different that it is little wonder so many reviews are negative. Elizabeth Strout took Emily Dickenson's poem "Tell all the truth but tell it slant" and did exactly that.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Touching, universally human story, genuinly written. It took me only 3 days to go through it with fascination
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5What!?? I don’t understand. The author said absolutely nothing of substance for the entire book.