When I ordered Lucy Ellman’s Ducks, Newburyport, I knew nothing about the book, other than that it had been shortlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize. So when it arrived I found myself looking around to see where the Candid Camera people were hiding. It’s a surprisingly large book. A genuinely long read. I am no marathon runner, but I think I experienced what is known as ‘the wall’ at about page 200, thankfully in the literary rather than athletic sense. I pushed on though, and t