One of the most famous novels by American prose writer and playwright Irwin Shaw, “Lucy Crown” (1956). Like other works by the author—“Two Weeks in Another Town,” “An Evening in Byzantium,” “Rich Man, Poor Man”—this novel opens for the reader a world of fragile connections and complicated, at times unpredictable relationships between people.
The story of how a single mistake can upend a person’s life and that of their loved ones, and how family happiness—unappreciated and destroyed—has been told in deceptively simple language. It reveals the author’s deep knowledge of human psychology and invites the reader to reflect and feel along with the characters.