[Free eBook] Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout [Literary Fiction]
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is a contemporary literary fiction novel, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Penguin.
The novel is a sequel to her award-nominated My Name is Lucy Barton (a finalist for the International Dublin Literary Award), and the 3rd novel in a sequence centred around the fictional rural town of Amgash, continuing to explore the heroine's complicated interpersonal relationships as a chance encounter leads her from New York back to Illinois, where the widowed author reconnects with her first husband and recalls the good and bad times that brought them together and drove them apart, via introspective character sketches.
Offered free in the UK and possibly other regions, available from the Kobo store.
Currently free just @ Kobo UK (probably a glitch freebie since it seems to be on £0.99 daily feature sale elsewhere at iTunes UK & Amazon UK, so enjoy it while it lasts if you can get it)
Description
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.'
“Anything is Possible,” is the last line of the last story in this remarkable collection. The collection is as much as it about miracles as it is about family secrets and hidden shame.
Anything is Possible
Abel of the short story “Gift,” feels shame that he and his sister Dottie used to eat out of dumpsters as children. Though he has worked hard and grown rich, Abel has never gotten over…
