I love Elizabeth Strout's writing. She's a master of character, including details that are so familiar that a novice wouldn't think to include them, but that have me nodding my head thinking, "Yes, I know this person."

In addition, most of her books tie together in subtle ways that makes reading feel like I'm solving a puzzle. Some books are collections of seemingly unrelated stories that have discreet threads (a minor character in one story becomes the focus of another story) tying them together; some of the books repeat this trick on a larger scale.

In the case of this book: it's a zoomed-in look at author Lucy Barton, her difficult childhood, her emergence as a writer in NYC, her flawed marriage, and her tenuous identity as a mother. And if you'd like to zoom out and hold Lucy in a broader context, read Strout's book, "Anything Is Possible," which focuses on the town she grew up in and references Lucy only through the eyes of others.