975. The Story of Lucy Gault

The Story of Lucy Gault
William Trevor
2002
Around 240 pages

I guess Irish people were the only ones writing novels in the early 2000s. This might be my favorite of the bunch. At the very least, it's my favorite William Trevor book.

Lucy Gault doesn't want to move when her family decides to leave Ireland, so she runs away into the woods. Her parents assume she drowned and leave, and nobody can get into contact with them once Lucy is discovered alive. Lucy is raised by the house servants, and enters an uneasy adulthood knowing that she is the reason she doesn't have a family.

I thought this was a fascinating premise, and you couldn't blame Lucy for self-sabotaging later in her life, knowing how much pain she caused based on one impulsive decision. It reminded me of Atonement; you can really do a lot of damage as a child. 

A beautifully crafted novel, and one that I would have never come across without the List. 

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Prizes.

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