Abide with Me - Hardcover

Strout, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 074323930X ISBN 13: 9780743239301

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2005

Synopsis

In the 1950s, in the small town of West Annett, Maine, a minister struggles to regain his calling, his family, and his happiness in the wake of profound loss. At the same time, the community he has served so charismatically must conjure with its own strengths and failings-faith and hypocrisy, loyalty and abandonment - when a shocking secret is revealed. Tyler Caskey was not born in West Annett, but he has grown to love it; the short, brilliant summers and the sharp, piercing winters fill him with awe-as does his congregation, full of good people, people who seek his guidance and earnestly lean forward to listen as he preaches. But after suffering a terrible loss, Tyler finds it difficult returning to himself as he once was. He hasn't had The Feeling-that God is all around him, in the beauty of the land-for quite some time. He struggles to find the right words in his sermons and in his conversations with those facing crises of their own, And to bring his five-year-old daughter, Katherine, out of the silence she has observed in the wake the family's tragedy. A congregation that had once been kind and understanding during Tyler's grief now questions his leadership and propriety. In the kitchens, classrooms, offices, and stores of this village, anger and gossip have started to swirl. And in Tyler's darkest hour, a startling discovery will test his congregation's humanity-and his own will to endure the kinds of trials that sooner or later test us all.

About this title

Review:

‘As perfect a novel as you will ever read . . . So astonishingly good that I shall be reading it once a year for the foreseeable future and very probably for the rest of my life’ (Evening Standard on Olive Kitteridge)

‘Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force’ (The New Yorker on Olive Kitteridge)

‘Masterfully wrought’ (Vanity Fair on Olive Kitteridge)

‘Strout has a wonderful ability to turn a phrase...[these] pages hold what life puts in: experience, joy, grief, and the sometimes-painful journey to love’ (Observer on Olive Kitteridge)

'I am deeply impressed. Writing of this quality comes from a commitment to listening, from a perfect attunement to the human condition, from an attention to reality so exact that it goes beyond a skill and becomes a virtue. I have never read her before and I knew within a few sentences that here was an artist to value and respect' (Hillary Mantel on My Name is Lucy Barton)

'Strout's best novel yet' (Ann Pachett on My Name is Lucy Barton)

'An exquisite novel... in its careful words and vibrating silences, My Name Is Lucy Barton offers us a rare wealth of emotion, from darkest suffering to - 'I was so happy. Oh, I was happy' - simple joy' (Claire Messud, New York Times Book Review on My Name is Lucy Barton)

'So good I got goosebumps... a masterly novel of family ties by one of America's finest writers' (Sunday Times on My Name is Lucy Barton)

'My Name is Lucy Barton confirms Strout as a powerful storyteller immersed in the nuances of human relationships... Deeply affecting novel...visceral and heartbreaking...If she hadn't already won the Pulitzer for Olive Kitteridge this new novel would surely be a contender' (Observer on My Name is Lucy Barton)

'Hypnotic...yielding a glut of profoundly human truths to do with flight, memory and longing' (Mail on Sunday on My Name is Lucy Barton)

About the Author:

Elizabeth Strout's tenure as a lawyer (six months) was slightly longer than her career as a stand-up comedian (one night). She has also worked as a bartender, waitress and piano player at bars across the USA. She now teaches literature in New York, where she lives with her husband and daughter.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 074323930X
• ISBN 13: 9780743239301
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400