Lucy by the Sea

Lucy Barton returns to narrate her life experience as she and her family navigate the challenges of the COVID pandemic. Lucy’s ex-husband, William, whisks her away from the city to a seaside cottage in Maine, where they rekindle their relationship and make an unexpected investment in their future. As Lucy’s daughters ride out the lockdowns and restrictions, they also face challenges and make decisions, not unlike the ones Lucy has made in her own life. With time on their hands for introspection, Lucy and her daughters come to understand that life is a series of events with multiple outcomes and consequences. Lucy is an author who thinks and acts like one, contemplating each nuance and situational setting she encounters. Readers will recognize some familiar characters from Strout’s (Oh William!) other works to help Lucy maneuver through this new phase in her life. Narrator Kimberly Farr’s breathy, thoughtful reading perfectly channels Lucy’s personality, but listeners may want to speed up the recording to bring up the overly languid pace.