New Elizabeth Strout

I'll be sending the evite out for next week, but in the meantime, I received this in my inbox for Elizabeth Strout lovers (i.e. Faith).

Oh William!

The idea of my new book Oh William! came to me this way: the actor Laura Linney was about to star in a one woman show based on my novel, My Name is Lucy Barton. One day I was at a rehearsal with her when the director, Richard Eyre, said something to her about the character William, who was Lucy’s ex-husband at that time—I cannot remember what exactly he said, but this is what I do remember: Laura murmured quietly something about, Maybe William had an affair, and she put her glasses up on top of her head and I suddenly thought: Oh William!

This was the moment when I realized that of course (!) William had his own story and I was suddenly really excited about looking at that part of him. I saw, as I worked this through, that I had already put in the essentials for his story in My Name is Lucy Barton. I knew that he was the son of a POW from Germany who had been sent over in World War II to work in the potato fields of Maine and that man had fallen in love with the potato farmer’s wife, Catherine, who became William’s mother.

I also knew that in real life there is a place in Maine where these POW had actually come to. So my husband and I took a field trip. We went up there, we went to all the places that Lucy and William go on their own trip, and I took furious notes on everything I saw. And when we came back I settled down and wrote their story.

Warmest wishes to all of you,
Elizabeth Strout