"My Name is Lucy Barton" by Elizabeth Strout. I have read some wonderful books lately! After a few days with a fabulously twisty book with more secrets than most carry I read this today. I needed a little rest from drama which is usually where I seek Anna Quindlen. So happy to have a "small" book on my pile by one of my new favorites, Elizabeth Strout. I just love how she weaves her stories and some of the lessons you learn along the way.

This is *My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout* - by the same Pulitzer Prize-winning author of _Olive Kitteridge_ that you just showed.

Here is a summary in English:

*The Story:*

*Lucy Barton* is in a hospital in New York City. She had a simple appendectomy, but something went wrong and she has been stuck in the hospital for 9 weeks, with a fever that won't go away.

She is lonely. Her husband is busy with work and taking care of their two little girls at home in their small apartment.

Then, unexpectedly, her mother comes to visit. Lucy hasn't seen her mother in years.

Lucy comes from extreme poverty in *Amgash, Illinois*. Her childhood was traumatic: her family lived in a garage, were isolated, mocked by the whole town, and her parents were harsh and unloving. She escaped by going to college and becoming a writer in New York, and she cut off contact with her family.