Lucy Crown

"Lucy Crown" is a novel by Irwin Shaw first published in 1956. It is about a wife and mother—the eponymous character—who, in the summer of 1937, begins an affair with a young man whom the Crowns have hired as a companion for their fragile son Tony.

Lucy Crown's deliberate act of infidelity and betrayal, which is witnessed by Tony, leads to the disintegration of her marriage and complete estrangement from her son. Only a chance meeting with Tony in a bar in Paris, France in the 1950s leads to a partial reconciliation of mother and son. Lucy learns that Tony is married with a son and actually living in Paris as an artist. She immediately sees through his facade and realizes that, while keeping up appearances, he is leading an unhappy life. Together they visit his father's grave in the small French village where he was shot by a sniper during World War II.