HT reviewer Saudamini Jain picks her favourite reads of 2022

Every time I read Elizabeth Strout, I feel like I’m in the middle of a long, deep, conversation with a close friend — like she’s revealing parts of her soul to me, or sharing insights into somebody else’s, or saying something I relate to so thoroughly, I feel more seen than I ever have before

Every time I read Elizabeth Strout, I feel like I’m in the middle of a long, deep, conversation with a close friend — like she’s revealing parts of her soul to me, or sharing insights into somebody else’s, or saying something I relate to so thoroughly, I feel more seen than I ever have before.

A deep conversation with a close friend: Elizabeth Strout’s Oh William!, shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year, is about Lucy and William’s relationship — the early years of dating, their marriage and how it devolved, and the deep friendship they found after their divorce. (HT Team)

Oh William! is about a divorced late-middle-aged couple taking a road trip. After ending their marriage of 20 years, Lucy and William remained friends. So, when his young third wife leaves him, recently-widowed Lucy accompanies William to look for a half-sister he had previously not known he had. The novel, shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year, is about Lucy and William’s relationship — the early years of dating, their marriage and how it devolved, and the deep friendship they found after their divorce.

Reviewer Saudamini Jain (Courtesy the subject)

Lucy Barton is one of Strout’s most poignant characters. She’s a successful writer living in New York who grew up in terribly bleak poverty. She first appears in My Name is Lucy Barton (2016) which is set in a hospital where Lucy is recovering and where her estranged mother comes to visit. The difficulties of their lives and mother-daughter relationship are revealed through their conversation. We learn of the lives of her siblings and their inability to escape their circumstances like Lucy in Anything is Possible (2017), a novel of interconnected stories about a community of people in Maine and Illinois where characters from all nine of Strout’s novels are largely from.

After reading the three books, I feel like I know Lucy Barton — as I do Strout’s other famous character Olive Kitteridge but with more tenderness. A fourth — Lucy by the Sea — was published a few months ago and I’m reading it as soon as I can before there’s a new one. (Strout has been producing a book almost every year these last few years, which seems impossible, really, considering how she pries apart people and feelings with exquisite sensitivity.)

Saudamini Jain is an independent journalist. She lives in New Delhi.