My Name Is Lucy Barton
Elizabeth Strout's 2016 novel is narrated by Lucy Barton, a writer in middle age looking back at a long stretch of weeks she once spent in a Manhattan hospital with a mysterious post-surgical infection. Out of nowhere, her mother, whom she has not seen in years and from whom she fled the moment she could, arrives at the foot of the bed and stays for five days. They talk about almost nothing, neighbors back in rural Illinois, distant cousins, a girl who married badly, but never about the poverty, the cold garage, or the things Lucy's father did. Around that hospital scene, Strout layers Lucy's later life as a writer in New York, her own marriage and divorce, and the slow, almost reluctant way memory gives up what childhood has tried to bury. The book is short, plain on the surface, and devastating, and it launched Strout's loosely connected Amgash novels.
What you might want to know about My Name Is Lucy Barton
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Hospitalized in 1980s New York after a routine surgery goes wrong, Lucy Barton wakes up to find her estranged mother in the chair beside her bed. The novel is mostly the things they say to each other across five days.
Elizabeth Strout has written four main Lucy Barton novels: My Name Is Lucy Barton, Anything Is Possible, Oh William!, and Lucy by the Sea. Each can be read on its own, though they form a continuing arc.
A TV adaptation has been in development. As of 2025, no formal release has been announced. The novel was previously adapted as a one-woman stage play starring Laura Linney.
My Name Is Lucy Barton was written by Elizabeth Strout, published in 2016 by 1984.
My Name Is Lucy Barton is 208 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, My Name Is Lucy Barton takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
My Name Is Lucy Barton is a standalone novel by Elizabeth Strout, not part of a series.
My Name Is Lucy Barton is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
