By Elizabeth Strout. Explores the relation between a woman (Lucy Barton) who grew in poverty and her mother who was unable to protect her or her siblings from their father's mercurial mood swings and violent nature.

This is the first book in a series of 3. The second book, Anything is Possible, continues the story of Lucy, her family, and other people in the town where she lived. Lucy‘s first husband‘s story is told in the third book, Oh Willam!.