Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Most Anticipated Books of 2025!

Summary and Reviews of Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato

Edgar and Lucy by Victor Lodato

Edgar and Lucy

by Victor Lodato
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Readers' Rating (33):
  • First Published:
  • Mar 7, 2017, 544 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Feb 2018, 544 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

A new literary novel from Weissberg Award winning playwright and PEN USA Award for Fiction winning writer Victor Lodato, Edgar and Lucy is a masterfully written story of a broken family struggling to stay together.

Eight-year-old Edgar Fini's loyalty is torn between the two women in his life. There's his mother, Lucy, who, though she has moments where she loves him, mostly disappears at night with her various "suitors." And then there's his grandmother, Florence, who dotes on him to the point where she is at a loss when he isn't around. Since his father's suicide, Florence and Edgar's relationship has become obsessive, each fully dependent on the other. When Florence suddenly dies, Lucy is thrown into the role of main caretaker and doesn't know how to handle her new job. But as Edgar and Lucy adjust, they must also deal with Ron, a local butcher who wants to court Lucy, and Conrad, an unsettlingly attentive adult whose intentions are at one more sinister and more innocent than Edgar could ever know.

After Conrad separates Edgar from his mother, the man and the boy form a home life of two, isolated deep in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, an arrangement that is not at all one-sided, even as Lucy, their hometown, and as time goes on, a wider world hunts for the boy.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Edgar and Lucy is a deeply moving book and one that I highly recommend for anyone. It would be an especially good book for book clubs as there are so many potential areas of discussion. (Vicki C). The book presents multiple views of deep topics such as death, grief, depression, love, loss, family and abduction. (Kay D). I was fascinated by this book and can visualize an in-depth discussion by book club members (Doris K). This book has everything for the reader of tales: Off kilter characters; family drama; multiple viewpoints; and beautiful readable language. Highly recommended (Maggie R). If you enjoy character-driven stories illustrated with luminous prose, you will enjoy Edgar and Lucy. (Elizabeth K)...continued

Full Review (1179 words)

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today.

(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



Betelgeuse

In Edgar and Lucy, author Victor Lodato often uses the symbolism of stars, especially Betelgeuse.

Artist's impression of BetelgeuseBetelgeuse is a star in the Orion constellation, one of the most easily recognized groups of stars in the night sky. Orion's Belt consists of of three stars (also known as the Three Kings or the Three Sisters). Betelgeuse, officially termed Alpha Orionis is visible above and to the left of Orion's Belt, marking the hunter's shoulder, and is the second brightest object present in the grouping after Rigel. In other cultures the star is associated with the leg of a running stag (ancient India), the leg of a cayman or turtle (Brazil); part of a ceremonial drum (Japan), or one of four vultures about to devour a criminal (Peru).

Most sources ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Edgar and Lucy, try these:

  • The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean jacket

    The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean

    by David Almond

    Published 2015

    About this book

    More by this author

    From master storyteller David Almond comes a gripping, exquisitely written novel about a hidden-away child who emerges into a broken world.

  • The Story of Edgar Sawtelle jacket

    The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

    by David Wroblewski

    Published 2009

    About this book

    Born mute, speaking only in sign, Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents on their farm in remote northern Wisconsin. But his life is plunged into chaos as his uncle returns, his father suddenly dies, and he is forced to flee into the wilderness with only three yearling dogs for company.

We have 4 read-alikes for Edgar and Lucy, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by Victor Lodato
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Memory Library
by Kate Storey
Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second chances are written in the margins.
Book Jacket
Let's Call Her Barbie
by Renée Rosen
She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.
Book Jacket
Babylonia
by Costanza Casati
From the author of the bestselling Clytemnestra comes another intoxicating excursion into ancient history. When kings fall, queens rise.
Book Club Giveaway!
Win Help Wanted

Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman

From the best-selling author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. comes a funny, eye-opening tale of work in contemporary America.

Enter

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Going Home
    by Tom Lamont

    Going Home is a sparkling, funny, bighearted story of family and what happens when three men take charge of a toddler following an unexpected loss.

  • Book Jacket

    The Secret History of the Rape Kit
    by Pagan Kennedy

    The story of the woman who kicked off a feminist revolution in forensics, and then vanished into obscurity.

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Y C L a H T W but Y C M H D

and be entered to win..