Oh William!

Elizabeth Strout

One proof of Strout s greatness is the sleight of hand with which she injects sneaky subterranean power into seemingly transparent prose. Strout works in the realm of everyday speech, conjuring repetitions, gaps and awkwardness with plain language and forthright diction, yet at the same time unleashing a tidal urgency that seems to come out of nowhere even as it operates in plain sight. The New York Times Book Review

So much intimate, fragile, desperate humanness infuses these pages, it s breathtaking. Almost every declaration carries the force of revelation. The Washington Post

For all the depths of anger and despair they uncover, and the bitterness they attest to, Strout s works insist on the su- perabundance of life, the unrealized bliss always immanent in it. The New York Review of Books

Being privy to the innermost thoughts of Lucy Barton and, more to the point, deep inside a book by Strout makes readers feel safe. We know we re in good hands. NPR

Strout s simple declarative sentences contain continents. Who is better at conveying loneliness, the inability to communicate, to say the deep important things? Who better to illustrate the legacies of imperfect upbringings, of inadequate parents? When William explains that what attracted him to Lucy was her sense of joy, the reader can only agree. This brilliant, compelling, tender novel is quite simply a joy. The Boston Globe

Strout doesn t dress language up in a tuxedo when a wool sweater will suffice. Other novelists must berate themselves when they see what Strout pulls off without any tacky pyrotechnics. Los Angeles Times

The miraculous quality of Strout s fiction is the way she opens up depths with the simplest of touches, and this novel ends with the assurance that the source of love lies less in understanding than in recognition although it may take a lifetime to learn the difference. The Guardian

At the core of . . . Strout s