Lucy by the Sea

Lucy by the Sea (Random House, 2022) is by American novelist Elizabeth Strout. It is the fifth in the Amgash, Illinois series, which follows Lucy Barton, a writer herself, throughout her life.

Strout began her writing career with Amy and Isabelle (1998), which garnered immediate critical praise, and was adapted into a film starring Elisabeth Shue. Strout also authored Olive Kitteridge (2008), which brought her to the general public’s attention. This book of interconnected short stories won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 and was adapted into an HBO mini-series starring Frances McDormand.

Strout is known for minimalist prose that probes themes of grief, loss, and the fundamental isolation of being human. She is known for using a humorous tone and paying homage to the beauty of the human experience.  

This study guide uses the eBook edition of the novel, published in 2022 by Random House.

Content Warning: Lucy by the Sea illustrates the widespread fear and death of a character’s family member during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also discusses sexual assault and police violence and brutality in the United States, recounting the case of Abner Louima in 1997 and the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Plot Summary

It is March of 2020, just as the Covid pandemic is reaching New York City. Lucy Barton’s ex-husband asks her to move out of the city with him to escape before the virus becomes widespread. William is a parasitologist, who studies parasites, and believes that the virus will devastate the city. He advises their daughters, Chrissy and Becka, to leave as well. Lucy and William travel to Maine, where he has rented a house in the rural coastal community of Crosby.

Although they’ve been divorced for nearly 20 years, Lucy and William’s relationship is amicable, and they settle into life together. They have both been living in New York for about 40 years; the switch to rural life is, at times, challenging, but they find solace in daily walks and the natural landscape that surrounds them.

While Chrissy and her husband, Michael move to Connecticut on William’s advice, Becka and her husband, Trey, stay in their apartment in Brooklyn. However, Becka finds out that Trey had been planning to leave her, making lockdown untenable. William arranges a way for Becka to get out of Brooklyn and move to Connecticut, where she will quarantine before settling in with Chrissy and Michael.

Lucy and William watch television in horror as William’s prediction comes true, and New York is ravaged by the pandemic. Lucy is also grieving her second husband, who died little more than a year ago, and is feeling isolated from her daughters. Lucy and William face the resentment of the locals, some of whom see them as intruders, city snobs who look down on them. However, as time goes on, and spring heads into summer, they begin to adjust to their new normal.

In July, they watch in anger and disbelief as George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, is murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer. They follow the protests from a distance, on television. Lucy is worried that the protesters will contract Covid. She becomes even more concerned when she finds out that her daughters have been protesting in nearby New Haven. Lucy, meanwhile, begins to develop friendships in Maine, particularly with William’s friend, Bob Burgess. She and William begin to travel more during the summer, taking day trips around the state.

Toward the end of the summer, Lucy decides to sell her apartment in New York, and moves the rest of her things to the house in Maine. William has found work helping local farmers with parasite problems, and Lucy has a writing studio in town. That fall, William decides to buy the house they are living in, and suggests that they both become Maine residents; this way, when the vaccine becomes available, they will not have to travel to New York. Lucy and William reenter a romantic relationship. She worries that he will want her to move into his New York apartment, which she doesn’t want to do.

In the end, they decide to move permanently to Maine, and return to New York to tie up loose ends. The city is so different from what Lucy remembers that she feels disoriented. Chrissy and Becka agree to meet her in the city, and tell her that they are concerned about Lucy’s new relationship with William. They worry that he has manipulated her so that he won’t have to be alone, and are so insightful that Lucy begins to doubt her decision. However, in the end, when William finally arrives in New York to travel back to Maine with her, Lucy feels nothing but comfort, relief, and the rightness of her decision.