A surprise encounter leads Lucy Barton to reconnect with William, her first husband - and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante. Recalling their college years, the birth of their daughters, the painful dissolution of their marriage, and the lives they built with other people, Strout weaves a portrait, stunning in its subtlety, of a decades-long partnership. The Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-longlisted author returns to her beloved heroine Lucy Barton.