In Lucy by the Sea, the sequel to Oh, William (reviewed here last year), Strout has once again adopted a plain, down-to-earth manner. The speaker sounds neither highly educated nor very articulate, but comes across as an ordinary person with no claim to being special. If anything, the tone is more flat-footed than ever. But the enterprise is not pedestrian.

      Think you’re not interested libraries? So did I. But as soon as I began to read The Library Book, that changed. It holds one’s interest in a way few books do. The writing is so good the subject is almost irrelevant. The author knows exactly when to leave a topic and broach a new one, how to pique your curiosity about something not even remotely interesting on the surface, and how to hold your attention fast, minute by minute. Everything she touches comes alive.