My name is Lucy Barton is a novel by Elizabeth Strout, published in January, 2016. This is a story about a woman who loves her daughter imperfectly. This book cover’s a life story,  poverty, abuse, art, marriage and a difficult relationship  between a mother and daughter. It’s a contemplative novel, a novel about trying to make sense of life. Lucy barton spends 9 weeks  in the hospital in the 1980’s in New York city folllowing complications from a surgery. Her mother comes to stay with her. Who can only express her feelings by telling stories of old acquaintances and their imperfect lives and whlie listening , Lucy bartor revisits her  own memories and the things she doesn’t want to remember in order to make peace with herself and her family. Her husband and young daughters don’t visit her much, wich leads her to think about loneliness, her marriage and mother hood. And she also muses about writing, what it mean to her, and how she was inspired by a numberof people. For such a short novel, it’s dense with story, thoughts and emotions. It’s more of an experience than a story. A powerful short novel that is filled with the wisdom that only comes with age. I would recommend  reading the book because it’s a really quite beautiful novel, beautifully written by Elizabeth strout.

( Rifat Khan Ara )