Elizabeth Alone — William Trevor

Alone together in a London hospital ward, four women take stock of their lives in this “deeply moving novel” by the award-winning author of The Old Boys (The New York Times).

At forty-one, the news that she requires a hysterectomy strikes Elizabeth Aidallbery as something of a nonevent. But from her bed at Cheltenham Women's Hospital, the divorced mother of three comes to realize that she is at a crossroads. She meets two other women admitted for the same operation: Young Sylvie Clapper, who is preoccupied with her dishonest boyfriend; and poor Miss Samson, with her disfiguring birthmark, who runs a Christian boarding house. In the ward with them is Lily Drucker, determined to have a child despite insurmountable difficulties.
 
With compassion and wry humor, these very different women share their lives, concerns, and regrets. Elizabeth faces a lonesome life that includes a childhood friend turned hapless suitor, and a teenage daughter who has run off to a commune. But there is a hard-won grace in the companionship these women find in Trevor's “finely observed, gently sensitive comedy” that is “delightful to read” (Daily Telegraph).