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Oh William!: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 by [Elizabeth Strout]

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Elizabeth Strout

Oh William!: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 Kindle Edition

by Elizabeth Strout (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

13,299 ratings

Book 3 of 3: Amgash

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LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022
THE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-longlisted, bestselling author returns to her beloved heroine Lucy Barton in a luminous novel about love, loss, and the family secrets that can erupt and bewilder us at any point in life

Lucy Barton is a successful writer living in New York, navigating the second half of her life as a recent widow and parent to two adult daughters. A surprise encounter leads her to reconnect with William, her first husband - and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante. Recalling their college years, the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a tender, complex, decades-long partnership.

Oh William! captures the joy and sorrow of watching children grow up and start families of their own; of discovering family secrets, late in life, that alter everything we think we know about those closest to us; and the way people live and love, against all odds. At the heart of this story is the unforgettable, indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who once again offers a profound, lasting reflection on the mystery of existence. 'This is the way of life,' Lucy says. 'The many things we do not know until it is too late.'

'A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own' Hilary Mantel

'A terrific writer' Zadie Smith

'She gets better with each book' Maggie O'Farrell

'One of America's finest writers' Sunday Times

'This is meticulously observed writing, full of probing psychological insight. Lucy Barton is one of literature's immortal characters-brittle, damaged, unravelling, vulnerable and, most of all, ordinary-like us all' Booker Prize Judges

ELIZABETH STROUT'S NEW NOVEL, LUCY BY THE SEA, IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin
Publication date

19 October 2021
File size

1515 KB
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Product description

About the Author

Elizabeth Strout is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Olive, Again; Anything Is Possible, winner of the Story Prize; My Name Is Lucy Barton; The Burgess Boys; Olive Kitteridge, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London. She lives in Maine. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Review

"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 best-selling fiction are characters grappling with huge questions about love, loss and family through seemingly ordinary moments. The domestic dramas that fill her books lead to startling revelations about the complexities that accompany marriage, parenthood and growing old. Her new novel is no exception."--Time

"[Strout] invests us deeply in Lucy's epiphany: Even though we are fueled by presumptions and believe what we want to believe, the truth is always within our sight."--Star Tribune

"[Oh William!] serves as a gentle reminder to be emotionally generous with our loved ones and as physically present as possible each and every day of our lives."--San Francisco Chronicle

"Keenly observed and rich with illuminating insight, Strout's tender mercies continue to astound."--Esquire

"The Pulitzer Prize-winning [Oprah's Book Club] author reprises her literary avatar, Lucy Barton, in this radiant--if melancholy--contemplation of marriage, mortality, and love's complexities."--Oprah Daily

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08QTXBXBM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin (19 October 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1515 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 240 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 2,233 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 128 in Literary Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 138 in Women's Fiction About Domestic Life
- 181 in Contemporary Women's Fiction

Customer Reviews:
13,299 ratings

About the author

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Elizabeth Strout

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Elizabeth Strout is the author of the New York Times bestseller Olive Kitteridge, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; the national bestseller Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London. She lives in Maine and New York City.

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Customer reviews

5 star		44%
4 star		33%
3 star		18%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Australia

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kate schroeder

oh Elizabeth

Reviewed in Australia on 7 November 2021

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I loved this book as I have loved her others. Her characters are so relatable, I feel like I am a bystander watching it all unfold and occasionally a nod recognition from some part of my life, maybe something that has just occurred to me. I was sad when I finished it .

One person found this helpful

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Liz

Enjoyed this book

Reviewed in Australia on 18 November 2021

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Although the main character was not really my type, this is an interesting, well-written book.

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Claudia Templeton

Beautiful story and great writing.

Reviewed in Australia on 26 October 2021

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Elizabeth Strout can really write and her stories are incredibly sensitive and kind. What a feat to do all that and make it interesting as well. No words.

One person found this helpful

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‘Oh William, I thought. Oh William!’

Reviewed in Australia on 4 November 2021

I am intrigued. After reading ‘Oh William!’ I realised that I should have started at the beginning, by reading ‘My name is Lucy Barton’ and then ‘Anything is Possible’. I feel like I know Lucy Barton, after reading ‘Oh William!’ but I want to know her better: all those references to her earlier story have me intrigued. Oh yes, it is possible to read ‘Oh William!’ as a standalone: it is a story about family and about secrets, largely self-contained. But I have a feeling that my appreciation of this novel will be deepened once I have had an opportunity to read the earlier novels in the series.

Lucy Barton is now 63 years old, and recently widowed. David Abramson, her late husband, is a man with whom she felt comfortable. They understood each other, they supported each other. The William of the title is Lucy’s first husband, the father of their now adult daughters, Chrissy and Becka. William is now 71, and despite their marriage breakdown and subsequent marriages, Lucy and William have remained friends. And so, it is to Lucy that William turns when he wants help with unravelling a family secret.

Lucy and William embark on a journey, into a past that William was unaware of and into a shared past which has Lucy sharing her insights and reflections. I enjoyed this novel.

Recommended.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

One person found this helpful

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A lovely conversational book

Reviewed in Australia on 7 November 2021

I hadn't realised that this was the third book in a series, but felt it was still quite good as a stand alone novel. Having said that,I am now keen to read the first to books in the 'Amgash' series.
In this story Lucy Barton is now in her early sixties and her ex-husband William has turned seventy. They are still good friends and the story is like one running narrative of Lucy's past and present relationship with William.
It feels almost like reading a diary, with Lucy's unfiltered view on people and her own feelings just spilling out onto the page.
The story is sad, happy, nostalgic and often quite humorous. I really enjoyed it, although I feel it will not be a book that is to everyone's taste.

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Subtle, delicate, complex

Reviewed in Australia on 1 November 2021

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In this next instalment of the Lucy Barton story Strout does her usual thing of seeming to write about quotidian life in all its ordinariness but in doing so, extracts complexities of the human psyche in their known and unknown mysteriousness. As Lucy says at the end, who can say what people have within them and why we turn out as we do? In the end, all that’s left to us is to see the dearness in all the souls around us even when we can see faults of character.
In this one, first husband William discovers he has an older half sister and he and Lucy go on a quest to find this woman. In doing so, they need to heavily revise what they know of William’s mother. By the end of the novel Lucy’s feeling about William undergoes a radical shift as well. Lucy faces the complexities of herself too, finding not everything inside her admirable, but considering her unfortunate background she’s done very well to give and receive love, to live a life true to herself with such courage.
Strout writes Lucy as unpretentiously honest, observant and insightful about nuances of expression and mood, as if she is beguiled with ever changing discoveries of what’s inside those around her, including her two adult daughters. The only thing that occasionally grates is the repetition of “What I mean is …” but we understand why she does it. She’s trying to be clear.

Reviewed in Australia on 12 April 2022

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Somehow Stroud manages to be a absolutely delightful and simultaneously profound. Her insight into humour nature continues to be so impressive.

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

Oh dear! Dreary, boring but at least it is short

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 March 2022

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My apologies to my book group. I chose this on the basis of its international best seller billing but it really disappointed. Emperor's new clothes? The prose style is painful to read being the reminiscing of one person, the plot ticks along so slowly it is hard to remain interested and the conclusion came so suddenly I was left wondering what had happened. The answer - nothing much. The one positive for my book group is that although it is relatively expensive to buy, it is quite short!

8 people found this helpful

Chrissy Frost

An unfinished marriage

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 October 2021

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Newly widowed Lucy Barton, a successful writer now in her sixties, has retained an amicable relationship with her first husband -the father of her two daughters. This complex relationship stands at the heart of the novel - a story of regret, reflection and the revelation of some surprising family secrets. This is a short novel and a quick read that will, nonetheless, give you plenty to think about when you have finished it. Elegant, nuanced, deceptively layered.

6 people found this helpful

Karolina Knapton

A most beautiful book from a most wonderful writer.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 November 2021

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I came to Strout's writing with My Name is Lucy Barton - a profoundly moving novel, every sentence formed so beautifully as Oh William is too.
I never skip one line in Strout's work, her gentle, honest and nuanced writing is too precious to miss one word.
I can't think of any other writer who describes so authentically the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of personalities and relationships.

5 people found this helpful

Savannahlady

Another wonderful novel from the Lucy Barton collection

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2021

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I just love Elizabeth Strout’s books. She has an inimitable style which is often like listening to someone in conversation or talking to themselves. She describes and reflects so well the complexities that ordinary people can have in their lives and how they decide to deal with them. An American friend introduced me to Olive Kitteridge several years ago - what a character! From that I went onto read all the others and, as someone who reads hundreds of books each year, I have to say I enjoy Elizabeth’s the most. There is just such an engaging essence to all that she writes and her characters are fascinating, yet quite down to earth as well. And Oh William ! is no exception - marvellous stuff!

2 people found this helpful

M. Dowden

Lucy is Back

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 August 2022

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A new novel featuring Lucy Barton is always something of a treat, although I will admit that this is not my favourite one in the series. In this tale, narrated obviously by Lucy so we are taken into the world of her first husband, William. As Lucy recovers from the grief of losing David, her last husband, so William has to come to terms with his latest wife walking out on him – which is something that is far from new when it comes to him.

Lucy is as naive and as selflessly unaware and unsophisticated as usual, and she helps William face his problems, as they have always stayed somewhat friendly. William is facing another crisis also in his life, in that he was given a genealogy site subscription as a gift and has found out that apparently his mother had already walked out on one relationship, leaving a little girl behind.

As you would expect this has great characterisation and some of the situations some people will be more aware of than others. Beautifully written and enjoyable to read, it is sometimes the things that are not mentioned too much that makes us think, and thus gives this a greater depth, as we have to use our brains. This then gives us something that is not a long read, is enjoyable and meatier than its length may make you think, and we see Lucy once again having to navigate her way through life and ponder upon the fact that we can never really understand anyone else. This is shown quite clearly here in the discovery of the roots of William’s mother.

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Oh William!: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 Kindle Edition

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