OH WILLIAM!

u003cbu003ePulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout explores the mysteries of marriage and the secrets we keep, as a former couple reckons with where they've come from--and what they've left behind. u003cbru003eu003c/bu003eu003cbru003eu003cbu003e"Elizabeth Strout is one of my very favorite writers, so the fact that u003ciu003eOh William!u003c/iu003e may well be my favorite of her books is a mathematical equation for joy. The depth, complexity, and love contained in these pages is a miraculous achievement."--Ann Patchett, author of u003ciu003eThe Dutch Houseu003c/iu003eu003c/bu003e u003cpu003eu003cbu003eu003ciu003eI would like to say a few things about my first husband, William. u003cbru003eu003c/iu003eu003c/bu003eu003cbru003eLucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. u003ciu003eWilliamu003c/iu003e, she confesses, u003ciu003ehas always been a mystery to meu003c/iu003e. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are. u003cpu003eSo Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret--one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. What happens next is nothing less than another example of what Hilary Mantel has called Elizabeth Strout's "perfect attunement to the human condition." There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together--even after we've grown apart. u003cpu003eAt the heart of this story is the indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who offers a profound, lasting reflection on the very nature of existence. "This is the way of life," Lucy says: "the many things we do not know until it is too late."