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This novel begins during the early days of the Covid pandemic with Lucy saying, “Like
many others, I did not see it coming.” Her former husband William, a scientist, does
foresee the escalating global health crisis and evacuates her to Maine. Isolated from her daughters and grieving for her second husband while stuck in a remote house with her first husband, Lucy takes us on her journey to overcome the fear and loneliness she has felt since childhood that comes crowding back in to rob her of
her confidence. “Life as I had known it was gone,” she says, and “I could not trust
myself to know what to do.” The halting rhythms and clear-eyed candor of Strout’s
conversational style perfectly captures the dislocation, claustrophobia, and loneliness of the early days of the pandemic, but also the possibilities, hope and moments of
happiness those quiet days of reflection inspired. It's a long way from NYC to rural Maine, in distance, in politics, in resources, and Lucy knows what it’s like to be poor, to feel looked down upon and humiliated. So, while like us she is greatly disturbed by the powerful and dangerous divisions in America today, she helps us understand why many people are so angry, and shows us through quiet, respectful, encounters, how we can begin to talk to each other. Lucy knows that while there is great suffering in life and while “grief is a solitary matter,” we can find healing, even long after the loss, and much of that healing comes through our connections to others. After all, as Lucy says, “We are only doing what we can to get through.”
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