My Name is Lucy Barton

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.

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`I am deeply impressed. Writing of this quality comes from a commitment to listening, from a perfect attunement to the human condition, from an attention to reality so exact that it goes beyond a skill and becomes a virtue. I have never read her before and I knew within a few sentences that here was an artist to value and respect`– Hilary Mantel

`Strout's best novel yet`– Ann Patchett

`So good I got goosebumps... a masterly novel of family ties by one of America's finest writers` – Sunday Times

`My Name is Lucy Barton confirms Strout as a powerful storyteller immersed in the nuances of human relationships... Deeply affecting novel...visceral and heartbreaking...If she hadn't already won the Pulitzer for Olive Kitteridge this new novel would surely be a contender` – Observer

`Hypnotic...yielding a glut of profoundly human truths to do with flight, memory and longing` – Mail on Sunday

`This is a book you'll want to return to again and again and again` – Irish Independent