“Here is what I did not know that morning in March: I did not know that I would never see my apartment again. I did not know that one of my friends and a family member would die of this virus. I did not know that my relationship with my daughters would change in ways I could never have anticipated. I did not know that my entire life would become something new.”

When William Gerhardt tells Lucy Barton that they need to leave New York before the pandemic arrives, Lucy doesn’t comprehend the situation’s seriousness. Here, however, she offers a glimpse of the future, and how monumentally her life will change. Strout foreshadows the events of the novel, summarizing what the story will explore in much more detail, creating tension. Strout uses repetition to create a sense of lyricism and emphasis: “I did not know.”

“There was a sweetness I felt at the sight of these two islands, and it reminded me of how when I was a child in our tiny house in the rural town of Amgash, Illinois, in the middle of fields of soybeans and corn there had been one tree in the field, and I had always thought of that tree as my friend. Now, as I looked at them, these two islands felt almost like that tree had once been to me then.”

With her move to Maine, Lucy is drawn back into her rural childhood in Illinois. The islands remind her of the tree from her childhood, and they become a motif threaded throughout the novel. By leaving New York for a rural community, Lucy is able to reconnect with nature in a way that will ground her through the upheaval of the year to come.

“I watched it, believing it, I mean I knew it was happening is what I mean, but to describe my mind as I watched this is difficult. It was as though there was a distance between the television and myself. And of course there was. But my mind felt like it had stepped back and was watching it from a real distance, even as I felt the sense of horror.”

Lucy and William, evacuated safely to Maine, watch the news every night, following the details of the Covid virus in New York. Strout offers readers the perspective of New Yorkers who are deeply attached to their city, and yet find themselves watching events from a distance.