Finalista del Booker Prize 2022
Un libro del que no se sale, hermoso, doloroso, irónico y profundo como las historias de Lucia Berlin o Alice Munro, por la ganadora del Premio Pulitzer y el Premi Llibreter entre otros, con tres millones y medio de lectores.
Uno de los mejores libros del año según
The Times
«Esta mujer que tanto me ha dado llenando mis horas de insomnio.»
- Elvira Lindo
«Elizabeth Strout se consagra como la más magistral alumna de John Cheever y James Salter.»
- Rodrigo Fresán
Inesperadamente, Lucy Barton se convierte en confidente y apoyo de William, su exmarido, el hombre con el que ha tenido dos hijas ya adultas, pero que ahora es casi un desconocido presa de terrores nocturnos y empecinado en desvelar el secreto de su madre.
Mientras su nuevo matrimonio tambalea, William quiere que Lucy lo acompañe en un viaje del que no volverá a ser el mismo. ¿Cuántos sentimientos -celos, piedad, temor, ternura, decepción, extrañeza- caben en un matrimonio, incluso cuando ha terminado -si tal cosa es posible-? Y en el centro de esta historia, la voz indomable de Lucy Barton, su reflexión profunda y perenne sobre nuestra propia existencia: «Así es como funciona la vida. Todo lo que no sabemos hasta que ya es demasiado tarde».
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Finalist of the Booker Prize 2022
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout explores the mysteries of marriage and the secrets we keep, as a former couple reckons with where they’ve come from—and what they’ve left behind.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKSOF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • Time • NPR
I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William.
Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are.
So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. What happens next is nothing less than another example of what Hilary Mantel has called Elizabeth Strout’s “perfect attunement to the human condition.” There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart.
At the heart of this story is the indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who offers a profound, lasting reflection on the very nature of existence. “This is the way of life,” Lucy says: “the many things we do not know until it is too late.”
“Elizabeth Strout is one of my very favorite writers, so the fact that Oh William! may well be my favorite of her books is a mathematical equation for joy. The depth, complexity, and love contained in these pages is a miraculous achievement.”—Ann Patchett, author of
The Dutch House