My Name Is Lucy Barton

"A woman named Lucy stares out the window of a hospital room, recovering from an infection. She turns and sees her mother, from whom she has been estranged for many years. For most of a week, Lucy relaxes into the comfort and closeness of a mother’s love. But this is a complex relationship with dark corners — Lucy gossips amiably with her mother about people they used to know, but they never talk about the poverty and abuse that marked her childhood. Nor do they discuss the life Lucy leads now, her small successes as a writer, her husband and children. There are mysteries here that Elizabeth Strout doesn’t fully try to uncover, which is one of the reasons I loved this book."

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