Lisey's Story: A Novel

Stephen King

Oct 2006 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

*Now an Apple TV+ limited series starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen*

The “haunting…tender, intimate book that makes an epic interior journey” (The New York Times), Lisey’s Story is a literary masterpiece—an extraordinarily moving and haunting portrait of a marriage and its aftermath.

Lisey lost her husband Scott two years ago, after a twenty-five year marriage of profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey knew there was a place Scott went—a place that both terrified and healed him, could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it’s Lisey’s turn to face Scott’s demons, to go to that terrifying place known as Boo’ya Moon. What begins as a widow’s effort to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited.

“Intricate...exhilarating” (The New Yorker), perhaps Stephen King’s most personal and powerful novel ever, Lisey’s Story is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love. It is a beautiful, “rich portrait of a marriage, and the complicated affection that outlives death” (The Washington Post).

Ratings and reviews

Ok, I've read a good bit of King and this was not his best effort. I will say 2 things : 1. I'd never made it to page 200 (where it finally kicks in) if it hadn't had Kings name on it. The first 200 pages were laborious and there seemed to be no thread of a story there... 2. Had this been another author AND I'd somehow made it through past page 200 and finished the book, I'd have liked it, that is to say I might have given it an extra star, as overall it was a good book, but by Kings standards, not nearly as good as much of his other stuff.

I have long been a fan of Stephen King and he rarely fails to draw me into the story and make me feel close to the characters. This book does all this and more. Every now and then I come across a book which makes me feel sad to have finished it as I know it will be a long time before I read another which is as good and Lisey's Story is one of them. I honestly felt like the characters were old friends within the first couple of chapters and missed them as soon as I reached the end. As always with King this is a story with the greatest of imagination and heart. His finest work yet. Do yourself a favour and read this book, you won't regret it.

I've read this book three times and it's better every time. It's beautifully written, a unique treasure of intamacy, creativity and otherworldliness. An amazing journey into the depths one man's haunting past and the redemption of love. It's a journey that transcends death into a terrifying place and the revelation of the truth that brings them back into the light again.

About the author

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.