In Lucy By the Sea, Elizabeth Strout has returned to the story of Lucy Barton and her first husband, William, that was written of so well in Oh William. In this new book, we have moved ahead to early 2020, February then early March, when William suggests, no insists, that he pick her up and they leave the city “for a while” and that their daughters and families leave too. Lucy hasn’t a clue really. She hasn’t been paying any attention to much of anything it seems. And this wonderful novel picks up from there.

While set during the time of Covid, this is not really only a pandemic story. It is a story of how people adapt and adjust during a pandemic and allows for much introspection. I am in awe of Strout’s ability to continue the world that is Lucy’s into a new and different reality which requires that she look both back and forward, assessing her beliefs about herself, her family, her world and future. All of the attributes developed in the prior novels underpin Lucy’s reactions and coping mechanisms, as well as her relationships, with William, her daughters, and others she meets on this wholly unexpected, unwanted journey.

Elizabeth Strout has become one of my favorite authors. I will read anything she writes. I highly recommend Lucy by the Sea to all but familiarity with the Lucy Barton novels is recommended. If you haven’t yet read them, you have a reading treat ahead.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Lucy Barton, a 60 something character, is reunited, in a sense, with her ex-husband, William, in the latest installment of Strout's series. After having read of Lucy and her life experiences in the author's previous books, it feels like you're returning to visit an old acquaintance, not necessarily a friend.
What was especially interesting was the initial setting of the book. It was reflective of the unknowing pandemic calamity. Strout's simplistic prose captured the terror and uncertainty of the time so well. It was easy to relate to what we had all experienced thanks to such a gifted writer. There were so many situations described that made it necessary to evaluate the interactions of the characters as well as your own actions. Great read!

I love everything Elizabeth Strout writes and was so happy to revive another Novel featuring Lucy Barton.

The writing style, the characters and the story, I am always hooked from the start of the book. Only Ms. Strout could write about the pandemic lockdowns in a way that reflected how it felt.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an advanced copy. I loved it!

Beautiful. Simply Beautiful.

Anyone who lived during the pandemic will relate to the book, and anyone who has loved Lucy Barton will love reading about this stage in her life. Memories came flooding back, both of Strout's earlier books and my own experiences during those early pandemic days. My only complaint is the book seemed somewhat complete, and I truly hope this isn't the last we see of Lucy Barton.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Lucy By the Sea. The latest in the Lucy Barton series, Elizabeth Strout once again knocks it out of the park as her protagonist endures life during the covid lockdown.

Have recently lost husband number two, ex-husband William whisks Lucy away from New York to the Maine coast, since he foresees that a move is needed. Lucy, with her history of asthma, is vulnerable. Strout depicts an authentic description of how difficult and isolating it was during the pandemic. We see more of the crotchety interactions with ex-husband William, but ultimately they seem to comfort one another.

Family dynamics take center stage again in this one and Stout with her keen sense of telling a tale reminds us of what mattered most during the pandemic. We get to know more about Lucy’s daughters, their families, and their lives. Only one of their daughters, Chrissy, and her family take William’s advice to leave New York. Sadly, both of Lucy’s daughters are experiencing issues in their relationships. Its tough times.

Four Stars. A great read. Thank you NetGalley for providing me an advance copy for an unbiased and candid review. #LucybytheSea #ElizabethStrout #Netgalley

If you’ve enjoyed other novels by Elizabeth Strout, than this new one “Lucy By The Sea” will be no different. I read both an ARC and an audiobook version simultaneously. The audio narrator is Kimberly Farr who has done other works by Elizabeth Strout and is always a joy to listen to. Simply put, I can’t imagine any other voice than Farr’s when I read Strout’s stories.

This latest novel is the happenings of Lucy Barton & her Ex-husband William as they decide to escape New York during the Covid pandemic and how it effects them & their grown children. A wonderful introspective examination of their loves, losses, mistakes & triumphs. Highly recommend this book & all of Elizabeth Strout’s novels. She has the ability to bring authentic, vulnerable characters to life on the page. People you won’t mind meeting up with again when you “travel” into their communities via the page.

I read a print version as well as an audio version of this book. I adore Kimberly Farr’s narration for the vulnerable yet sometimes prickly Lucy Barton. Farr’s narration is spot-on and helps paint the picture in your imagination of who you believe Lucy is.

Every thought that went through my head during the pandemic 😷 was included in this book. I really love how an author decided to write a book that is fiction by based on real life events. If anybody ever wants to know what was it like during the pandemic I would say read Lucy By the Sea. From empty shelves to people hiding out. People socializing and people being extra cautious.

Thank you Netgalley and Random house for access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
I really enjoy Elizabeth Strout so I was excited to see a new title to add to the Lucy collection. I will say, I wasn't thrilled to read about the pandemic. Literature is where I go to escape (and the pandemic lasted far too long); I'd just prefer not to 're-live' it. Pandemic books with political overtones are not for me.

If you've seen any of my Elizabeth Strout reviews, or my immediate 4-star post when I finished this book, you probably know already what I am going to say here. Honestly, there is not a Strout book I've read (and I think I've read them all), that I didn't love. So no, I am not at all objective. But I am also a reader of books that Elizabeth Strout did not write, and I can tell you, I am not always as lucky. I could read 10 more books about Lucy Barton; I find her uncomplicated and utterly fascinating at once. Her relationship with William is the same—easy or difficult depending on the hour or the day. This is not the first post-pandemic pandemic book I've read, but something about the way Strout wrote this made me conscious of the idea that what I was reading was like watching a train wreck, and then, shockingly, realizing it was something real that we all just lived. It is fantasy and hard-biting reality at once. So maybe what I'm saying is that I love Strout for all her contradictions. And also, for giving us the wonderful Lucy Barton.

Thank you, Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout. This book is a continuation of Lucy Barton's story (a character in a few of Strout's other novels). Lucy and ex-husband, sometimes friend, William leave Manhattan together and head to Maine for a several month stay. Strout is amazing at capturing the details of everyday life and weaving them together so perfectly. Just go read this and every other book by Elizabeth Strout.

This was an incredible book! I think the second-chance-romance trope is one that I usually find repetitive, but this one felt fresh and romantic. I think this book feels more like a realistic version of an on again, off again relationship, because it felt more nuanced to read about!

I just couldn’t with this one. Maybe it’s too soon for me to read an account of the early days of the pandemic? The writing was too slow and the content hit too close to home.

A terrible pandemic has hit New York and William wants to get his family out of the city. His ex wife, Lucy, is very willing to go to a friends house in Maine. One of their adult daughters and her husband are going to Connecticut. Their other daughter is going to take her chances in the city. Who is going to survive and also thrive?
Elizabeth Strout is a great storyteller and this story about the pandemic is real and heartwarming.

I loved "Lucy by the Sea" by Elizabeth Strout. Highly enjoyed the simplicity of everyday living (during Covid) mixed with the complexity of the characters and relationships. Was a smooth, flowing, interesting and enjoyable read. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

This book follows the main character's Lucy at the start of the pandemic. She is recently widowed from her second husband. She is on speaking terms with her ex husband who is the father of her two daughters. Her ex husband works in the immunology field and urges their daughters and Lucy to get out of New York City for their own safety. Lucy ends up going to Maine with her ex husband for what she thought would be a short stay. I really enjoyed learning more about Lucy's childhood, marriages, and her relationship with her daughters. It has been almost 3 years since March 2020 and I often forget what the first few months felt like. It was such a peculiar and uncertain time in everyone's lives that I never truly made sense of it. This book forced me to think about my own experience with it and what I will one day tell my kids about it. Elizabeth Strout did a magnificant job describing the feelings that the pandemic brought people ranging from fear, anxiety, loneliness, and grief. She wrote about masked, long-awaited reunions with loved ones that I also remember having. New York City was forever changed by the pandemic and so are we. There may be people who avoid this book because the pandemic is too fresh in their minds and they are not ready for this perspective. To me, this book is a time capsule.

3. stars*.

Somehow I have made it this long without ever reading anything by Elizabeth Strout. I've heard ALL of the buzz. I've had most of her catalog on my TBR but was not entirely sure what the books were about so I didn't opt-in. When I saw one of her books available on NetGalley I leaped at the chance to read it.

Lucy by the Sea reads almost like a journal or memoir. It is the story of Lucy Barton, a late-middle-aged American woman dealing with the recent death of her second husband at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lucy's ex-husband, William, convinces her to go with him to Maine to escape the ravages and they literally weather it together.

I feel like coming into this series this late was a mistake. I do plan to go back to the beginning of this series, seeing as Olive Kitteredge and William make appearances in this book and I KNOW there are books by those names.

I did enjoy the emotional, evocative writing. I just feel like I really needed context.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. I have never read a book by Elizabeth Strout. This was my first Lucy Barton book. This book was full of regular mundane things like going on walks, cleaning out the drain in the shower, remembering past memories. Oh yeah, and it takes place during the pandemic. So not a lot happens. I thought I'd find it boring, but the writing was just so intriguing that I actually enjoyed it.

Elizabeth Strout hits it out of the park ... again! This slender volume continues the story of Lucy Barton in a pitch-perfect tour of the pandemic. In this novel, the fourth in the Amgash series, we pick up where Lucy left off in Oh William!, exploring her musings and observations about life, her past, and the startling present. She flees New York at the urging of her ex-husband William, going with him to a house by the sea in Maine. There, we experience the pandemic with Lucy as she reacts with surprise, loneliness, irritation, and joy at small things--in short, the full range of emotions most of us went through as the isolation of the pandemic dragged on. Strout skillfully manages to portray this resolute character as a real person, full of contradictions, humor, courage, and insight. I found myself rapt from beginning to end. If you haven't yet met Lucy, I urge you to dive into these books!

I really loved this installation in the series--in fact,, I believe this was my favorite. A thought provoking moving exploration of the pandemic and the impact it had on the big pictures of our lives but also the small and big ways in which it influenced the day to day of our lives. This book really brought me back to the experiences and the emotions of 2020--the fears, boredom, worries, and compassion. As always, the character composition from Strout is exceptional.

While literature can be an escape from current events, it can also be a vehicle to help process the world around us. To that end, Elizabeth Strout uses the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic to revisit the story of Lucy Barton and her ex-husband William in Lucy by the Sea. At William's urging, they leave New York City to shelter in Maine.

Lucy is the perfect character for Strout to place in such a situation; her naïveté, her second-guessing, her genuine feelings of confusion and frustration can mirror our own experiences of the transformative time. The fear, the unknowing, the concern, the drudgery, the safety, the annoyances and impatiences are revisited through fiction and it doesn't feel like a forced, unnatural setting for Lucy to find herself in. We can all relate when Lucy says, "This will end, I kept thinking. This will have to end. And every night it did not end, or indicate in any way that it would ever end."

Though the pandemic certainly directs some of the actions in the book, and George Floyd's death and the aftermath is also pulled in, Lucy is also caught up in finding ways to safely connect with neighbors, to support her daughters, to consider what is genuine, when it is worth taking risks.

While I first avoided this title, not sure if I was interested in reading already about the pandemic in fiction, I'm grateful I reconsidered. This was a beautiful framing, and there was something cathartic in seeing Lucy experience the muddled head, her inability to read, her grief and anxiety, to recognize those realities were true for me, too, once, but be grateful I'm no longer caught in that moment. It wasn't even three years ago, and I still have to pause when I realize how my daughters didn't set foot in a school building for an entire year. How did we do it?! I'm grateful for having been together and grateful to be on this side of an uncertain time. Lucy By the Sea is a notable, dare I even say welcome, account of an unsettling experience, to allow us to remember and mark the moment and take stock on what we lost, what we gained, what we learned.

(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)