Book club questions for Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout explores the complexities of family, relationships and secrets.
The novel follows the journey of Lucy Barton as she reconnects with her ex-husband William, who asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret.
Through Lucy’s voice, readers are taken on a journey of self-discovery, as she navigates the many unknowns in her relationship with William and the family secret that threatens to change everything she thought she knew.
The Synopsis
“Elizabeth Strout is one of my very favorite writers, so the fact that Oh William! may well be my favorite of her books is a mathematical equation for joy. The depth, complexity, and love contained in these pages is a miraculous achievement.”—Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House
I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William.
Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are.
So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. What happens next is nothing less than another example of what Hilary Mantel has called Elizabeth Strout’s “perfect attunement to the human condition.” There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart.
At the heart of this story is the indomitable voice of Lucy Barton, who offers a profound, lasting reflection on the very nature of existence. “This is the way of life,” Lucy says: “the many things we do not know until it is too late.”
Book Club Questions for Oh William!
1. Why have Lucy and William stayed in each other’s lives? Did you find yourself wishing they would get back together? How, if at all, did that feeling change over the course of the book?
2. Compare and contrast Lucy’s marriages to William and to David. How does she characterize each relationship? How does each man complement her in a different way?
3. What does Lucy learn about herself through her relationship with William? What have you learned about yourself through your relationships with others?
4. Discuss Lucy’s relationship with her mother-in-law, Catherine. What does the story about Catherine getting rid of the coat Lucy loved say about their relationship? Did your opinion of Catherine change as you learned more about her past? If so, how? If not, why not?
5. How were Lucy and William influenced by their parents’ trauma? How were Lucy and William’s daughters influenced by their parents’ trauma? Do you think there’s a way to stop this cycle?
6. “I have never really understood the whole class business in America, because I came from the very bottom of it, and when that happens it never really leaves you,” Lucy says. How do the themes of class and money appear throughout the book?
7. Lucy says of William, “When I really cried hard he did not get frightened the way I think David might have; but with David I never cried as I had in my first marriage, not the gasping sobs of a child.” Discuss this. Why do you think Lucy cried more with William?
8. “I began to feel a weird sense of something,” Lucy says about her wedding to William. “It is very hard to describe but it felt a little bit like things were not entirely real.” Why do you think Lucy felt this way? Have you ever experienced a feeling like this?
Enhance your book club
1. Despite being a well-known writer, Lucy describes feeling invisible “in the deepest way.” Discuss her feelings. Does she ever stop feeling this way? Who in her life makes her feel visible?
2. Lucy says she couldn’t really have a home without William, but William could have a home without her. What do you think she means by this?
3. To deny her husband the chance of comforting her, Lucy says, was “an unspeakably awful thing.” Explain what she means by this. Do you agree? Why or why not?
4. At the close of the book, Lucy says, “We do not know anybody, not even ourselves. Except a little tiny, tiny bit we do.” What do you make of this statement? Have you found it to be true in your life?
5. How did you feel about Lucy and William by the end of the book?
Additional Recommendations
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

With her trademark spare, crystalline prose—a voice infused with “intimate, fragile, desperate humanness” (The Washington Post)—Elizabeth Strout turns her exquisitely tuned eye to the inner workings of the human heart, following the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton through the early days of the pandemic.
As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea.
Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart—the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love.
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride.
But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.
With a rare combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into character, Elizabeth Strout has brought to life two deeply human protagonists whose struggles and triumphs will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys is perhaps Elizabeth Strout’s most astonishing work of literary art.
Happy reading! ❤️
I love to read and I enjoy exploring a range of genres including contemporary and historical fiction, mysteries, thrillers, nonfiction, and memoirs. If you would like me to review your book, feel free to reach out to me!