Most Popular Books by Elizabeth Strout

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of My Name is Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge comes a “poised and moving” (Vogue) novel about a divorced couple stuck together during lockdown—and the love, loss, despair, and hope that animate us even as the world seems to be falling apart. “Strout’s understanding of the human condition is capacious.”—NPR A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Time, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, PopSugar, She Reads With her trademark spare, crystalline prose—a voice infused with “intimate, fragile, desperate humanness” (The Washington Post)—Elizabeth Strout turns her exquisitely tuned eye to the inner workings of the human heart, following the indomitable heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton through the early days of the pandemic. As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea. Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart—the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love. Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize

"Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn''t spoken for many years, comes to see her and a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all--the one between mother and daughter"--

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton explores the mysteries of marriage and the secrets we keep, as a former couple reckons with where they’ve come from—and what they’ve left behind. ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air “Elizabeth Strout is one of my very favorite writers, so the fact that Oh William! may well be my favorite of her books is a mathematical equation for joy. The depth, complexity, and love contained in these pages is a miraculous achievement.”—Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William. Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are. So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Time, Vulture, She Reads

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a “stunner” (People) of a novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world. “Tell Me Everything hits like a bucolic fable. . . . A novel of moods, how they govern our personal lives and public spaces, reflected in Strout’s shimmering technique.”—The Washington Post SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, Vogue, Parade With her remarkable insight into the human condition and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?” It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning. Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • The beloved first novel featuring Olive Kitteridge, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of My Name is Lucy Barton and the Oprah’s Book Club pick Olive, Again “Fiction lovers, remember this name: Olive Kitteridge. . . . You’ll never forget her.”—USA Today “Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force.”—The New Yorker One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post Book World, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, People, Entertainment Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, The Plain Dealer, The Atlantic, Rocky Mountain News, Library Journal At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition—its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. The inspiration for the Emmy Award–winning HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, and Bill Murray

From the Man Booker Prize longlisted author of My Name is Lucy Barton ? Isabelle Goodrow has been living in self-imposed exile with her daughter Amy for fifteen years. Shamed by her past and her affair with Amy''s father, she has submerged herself in the routine of her dead-end job and her unrequited love for her boss. But when Amy, frustrated by her quiet and unemotional mother, embarks on an illicit affair with her maths teacher, the disgrace intensifies the shame Isabelle feels about her own past. Throughout one long, sweltering summer, as the events of the small town ebb and flow around them, Amy and Isabelle exist in silent conflict until a final act leads ultimately to the understanding they both crave.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An unforgettable cast of small-town characters copes with love and loss in this “compulsively readable” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton “This book, this writer, are magnificent.”—Ann Patchett WINNER OF THE STORY PRIZE • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, People, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, The Seattle Times, Esquire, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly In Anything Is Possible, Elizabeth Strout explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others. Here are two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. A grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother’s happiness in a foreign country. And Lucy Barton returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence. Reverberating with the deep bonds of family, and the hope that comes with reconciliation, Anything Is Possible “confirms Strout as one of our most grace-filled, and graceful, writers” (The Boston Globe).

From the author of Tell Me Everything, My Name is Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge: Elizabeth Strout''s celebrated fourth novel The Burgess Boys Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown for New York as soon as they could. Jim, a successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, something that Bob, a legal aid attorney who idolises Jim, has always taken in his stride. But when their sister desperately calls them back home to Shirley Falls to help her teenage son out of trouble, long-buried tensions begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever. A stunning story about the tragedies and triumphs of two brothers, from the bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge. Exploring the ties that bind us to family and home, this novel will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page. Praise for Elizabeth Strout ‘Astonishingly good’ Evening Standard ''So good it gave me goosebumps’ Sunday Times ‘Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force’ The New Yorker ''A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own'' Hilary Mantel

Abide With Me:From thePulitzer Prize-winning authorof Olive Kitteridge From the bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge,this is a startlingly beautiful novel about love and abandonment, faith and hypocrisy – and the peril of family secrets. ‘Deeply moving... In one beautiful page after another, Strout captures the mysterious combinations of hope and sorrow.’ The Washington Post Katherine is only five years old. Struck dumb with grief at her mother''s death, it is down to her father, the heartbroken minister Tyler Caskey, to bring his daughter out of silence. But Tyler is barely surviving himself. Since Lauren''s death he struggles to find the right words for his sermons – how can he be a leader to his congregation when he himself is lost? When Katherine''s teacher calls to discuss his daughter''s anti-social behaviour, it sparks a chain of events that begins to tear down Tyler''s defences. The small-town rumour-mill has much to make of Katherine''s odd behaviour, and even more to say about Tyler''s relationship with his housekeeper. In Tyler''s darkest hour, a startling discovery will test his congregation''s humanity - and his own will to endure the kinds of trials that sooner or later test us all. Praise for Elizabeth Strout ‘Astonishingly good’ Evening Standard ''So good it gave me goosebumps.’Sunday Times ‘Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force.’ The New Yorker ''A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own.'' Hilary Mantel ‘Graceful and moving.’ People

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a “stunner” (People) of a novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world. “Tell Me Everything hits like a bucolic fable. . . . A novel of moods, how they govern our personal lives and public spaces, reflected in Strout’s shimmering technique.”—The Washington Post SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, Vogue, Parade With her remarkable insight into the human condition and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?” It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning. Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout continues the life of her beloved Olive Kitteridge, a character who has captured the imaginations of millions. “Strout managed to make me love this strange woman I’d never met, who I knew nothing about. What a terrific writer she is.”—Zadie Smith, The Guardian “Just as wonderful as the original . . . Olive, Again poignantly reminds us that empathy, a requirement for love, helps make life ‘not unhappy.’”—NPR ONE OF PEOPLE’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive Kitteridge is “a compelling life force” (San Francisco Chronicle). The New Yorker has said that Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,” and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire us—in Strout’s words—“to bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can.” A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, Vogue, NPR, The Washington Post,Chicago Tribune, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, BuzzFeed, Esquire, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, The New York Public Library, The Guardian, Evening Standard, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, BookPage

”magnificent (...) a truly monumental piece of work. ” The Guardian Mitt under pågående pandemi föreslår Lucy Bartons exmake William att de tillsammans ska fly New York. Trots deras trassliga förflutna följer Lucy med, fast övertygad om att det rör sig om ett par veckors vistelse i en lite kuststad i Maine. Under månaderna som följer är Lucy och William utelämnade till varandra och irritationen blir allt större i huset intill det lynniga, brusande havet. Lucy kämpar med isoleringen och längtar tillbaka till sitt älskade New York. Hon konfronteras med sitt förflutna och sina sorger. Hon saknar sin nyss avlidne make, plågas av en väns död och tänker på de vuxna döttrarna, som inte längre tycks behöva henne. Hon ser hur döttrarna kämpar med sin kärlek till varandra, en kärlek som ibland lider av svår bitterhet och distans. Men under promenaderna och i tystnaden finns också ett välgörande lugn och vila. Långsamt får livet en annan skärpa och en oväntad vänskap föds i mötet med grannen Bob. Häpen upptäcker hon att han känns närmare henne än vad William någonsin varit. Med små medel, en utsökt humor och en skarpsinnig blick skildrar Elizabeth Strout hur svår, nyckfull och vacker intimitet kan vara människor emellan.

Galardoada com o Prémio Pulitzer e uma das escritoras mais empolgantes do presente, Elizabeth Strout regressa à saga em torno da personagem Lucy Barton. Oh, William! — saga familiar cujo esqueleto vai sendo desmontado em camadas — assenta num ponto nevrálgico: a voz indómita de Lucy Barton, veículo para uma reflexão profunda e delicada sobre a existência, qualidade presente em todos os livros da magistral Elizabeth Strout. Um romance luminoso sobre o amor, a perda e os segredos de família que regressam sem aviso e nos deixam aturdidos. No regresso da personagem Lucy Barton — protagonista dos romances O meu nome é Lucy Barton e Tudo é possível —, encontramos, desta vez, uma mulher madura, que conquistou fama e sucesso enquanto escritora. Um acontecimento inesperado traz de volta à vida de Lucy o seu primeiro marido, William, alguém que foi sempre um mistério para ela. Misteriosa é também a forte ligação que os une ainda. Lucy acaba de ficar viúva, William atravessa uma crise no seu terceiro casamento, enquanto procura descobrir um segredo do passado da mãe. É a Lucy que William pede apoio e companhia. Juntos iniciam um périplo geográfico e emocional que os levará para longe de Nova Iorque. Ao evocar o passado de ambos — os tempos da faculdade, o nascimento das filhas, a dissolução do casamento e as vidas refeitas com novos companheiros —, Strout compõe o retrato de uma convivência de décadas, conturbada e cúmplice. À medida que a narrativa avança, entrevemos as forças silenciosas que mantêm Lucy e William unidos. Percebemos também que, para se habitar em pleno uma nova vida, é preciso sarar feridas e celebrar o que se conquistou. "O grande tema de Oh, William! é o casamento, e Elizabeth Strout é brilhante a escrever sobre ele." The New York Times "Há nestas páginas uma humanidade tão íntima e frágil, que nos deixa sem fôlego." The Washington Post "Uma escritora elegante, engenhosa e de apurada sensibilidade: um valor seguro para todos os leitores exigentes." Babelia "A grande virtude de Elizabeth Strout é a desafetação: as histórias não precisam de ser grandiosas, porque a experiência humana também não o é; acontece no quotidiano, nas conversas, nos gestos. Os romances de Strout são universais." Los Angeles Times "Um romance do nosso tempo. Magnífico, cru, poético, narra a decomposição dos afetos numa era marcada pelo desapego e pelo ceticismo." El Cultural " Oh, William! é mais um passo importante no percurso desta herdeira do realismo americano, encabeçado por Lucia Berlin e Alice Munro." Esquire "Uma das minhas escritoras de eleição. A complexidade, a espessura e a entrega que se vislumbram nestas páginas transformam-nas num feito milagroso." Ann Patchett "Uma escritora incrivelmente talentosa, uma artífice num campeonato que é só seu." Hillary Mantel "Que escritora tão impressionante." Zadie Smith

The American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman in this “forceful, beautifully written” (Associated Press) collection that brings together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case. On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation’s premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays “full of struggle, emotion, fear, resilience, hope, and triumph” (Los Angeles Review of Books) about landmark cases in the organization’s one-hundred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in—Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona—need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Familiar or little-known, each case springs to vivid life in the hands of the acclaimed writers who dive into the history, narrate their personal experiences, and debate the questions at the heart of each issue. Hector Tobar introduces us to Ernesto Miranda, the felon whose wrongful conviction inspired the now-iconic Miranda rights—which the police would later read to the man suspected of killing him. Yaa Gyasi confronts the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the ACLU submitted a friend of- the-court brief questioning why a nation that has sent men to the moon still has public schools so unequal that they may as well be on different planets. True to the ACLU’s spirit of principled dissent, Scott Turow offers a blistering critique of the ACLU’s stance on campaign finance. These powerful stories, along with essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, and many more, remind us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today, and that we can never take our liberties for granted. Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.

Hyllade Elizabeth Strout är tillbaka med sin tredje roman om Lucy Barton i New York. Lucy har nyligen blivit änka och navigerar i den nya tillvaron som ensamstående mor till två vuxna döttrar. Efter många år isär hör hennes exman William plötsligt av sig och ber henne följa med på en resa för att gräva i en sedan länge dold familjehemlighet – en hemlighet med kraft att kullkasta allt de tror sig veta om varandra. En historia om rädsla och osäkerhet, om enkla nöjen och kärlekshandlingar och om de tysta krafter som binder människor samman, även när de har vuxit isär.

“As our vision becomes more global, our storytelling is stretching in many ways. Stories increasingly change point of view, switch location, and sometimes pack as much material as a short novel might,” writes guest editor Elizabeth Strout. “It’s the variety of voices that most indicates the increasing confluence of cultures involved in making us who we are.” The Best American Short Stories 2013 presents an impressive diversity of writers who dexterously lead us into their corners of the world. In “Miss Lora,” Junot Díaz masterfully puts us in the mind of a teenage boy who throws aside his better sense and pursues an intimate affair with a high school teacher. Sheila Kohler tackles innocence and abuse as a child wanders away from her mother, in thrall to a stranger she believes is the “Magic Man.” Kirstin Valdez Quade’s “Nemecia” depicts the after-effects of a secret, violent family trauma. Joan Wickersham’s “The Tunnel” is a tragic love story about a mother’s declining health and her daughter’s helplessness as she struggles to balance her responsibility to her mother and her own desires. New author Callan Wink’s “Breatharians” unsettles the reader as a farm boy shoulders a grim chore in the wake of his parents’ estrangement. “Elizabeth Strout was a wonderful reader, an author who knows well that the sound of one’s writing is just as important as and indivisible from the content,” writes series editor Heidi Pitlor. “Here are twenty compellingly told, powerfully felt stories about urgent matters with profound consequences.”

Uma simples visita ao hospital serve de mote para este romance da premiada autora Elizabeth Strout, que fala do insuperável amor entre mãe e filha. Lucy Barton está se recuperando do que deveria ter sido uma simples operação para extrair o apêndice. No hospital com vista para o Edifício Chrysler, em Nova York, ela recebe a visita da mãe, com quem não falava há anos. Enquanto se conectam com histórias que remetem à infância de Lucy, a vida inteira da convalescente é passada a limpo: o distanciamento de uma família complicada, a luta para encontrar sua voz como escritora, o casamento e a maternidade. Vencedora do prêmio Pulitzer com o romance Olive Kitteridge e autora de best-sellers, Elizabeth Strout ilumina esta relação primordial, ao mesmo tempo conflitiva e afetuosa, entre mãe e filha.

Een oud-lerares wiskunde volgt de gebeurtenissen in een kustplaatsje aan de Amerikaanse oostkust.

La Lucy Barton, mare de dues filles adultes i vídua des de fa poc, és una escriptora d''èxit que viu a Nova York. Malgrat la seva separació, encara manté l''amistat amb en William, el seu primer marit i confident durant molt de temps. Tot recordant els anys d''universitat, el naixement de les filles, la dolorosa dissolució del seu matrimoni i les vides que van construir amb altres persones, ens endinsem en una relació de dècades tendra i complexa. Ai, William! copsa l''alegria i la tristesa de veure com els fills creixen i fan la seva; de descobrir secrets familiars que alteren tot el que ens pensem que sabem sobre els qui ens envolten, i la manera en què les persones vivim i estimem, contra tot pronòstic.

In her first novel, ''Amy and Isabelle'', Elizabeth Strout evokes a teenager''s alienation from her distant mother - and a parent''s rage at the discovery of her daughter''s sexual secrets. In most ways, Isabelle and Amy are like any mother and her 16-year-old daughter, a fierce mix of love and loathing exchanged in their every glance. And eating, sleeping, and working side by side in the gossip-ridden mill town of Shirley Falls doesn''t help matters. But when Amy is discovered behind the steamed-up windows of a car with her math teacher, the vast and icy distance between mother and daughter becomes unbridgeable. As news of the scandal reaches every ear, it is Isabelle who suffers from the harsh judgment of Shirley Falls, intensifying her shame about her own secret past. And as Amy seeks comfort elsewhere, she discovers the fragility of human happiness through other dramas, from the horror of a missing child to the trials of Fat Bev, the community peacemaker.

Cet été-là, une vague de chaleur sans précédent s''abat sur la Nouvelle-Angleterre. A Shirley Falls, l''air est irrespirable. Mais pas aussi étouffant que le conflit opposant Amy à Isabelle - sa mère qui l''a toujours élevée seule. A 16 ans, la jeune fille connaît ses premiers émois. Un amour interdit. Un épisode qui renvoie Isabelle à son propre passé, à une faute qu''elle n''a pu expier. Au point de s''interdire tout bonheur. Par touches légères, Elizabeth Strout met en lumière les événements - petits ou grands - de cet été qui transformera à jamais ces deux femmes. Une délicate musique se fait alors entendre, qui révèle les nuances de l''âme humaine et préfigure Olive Kitteridge.

Román držitelky Pullitzerovy ceny se odehrává v americkém maloměstě a představuje životní dramata jeho obyvatel. Spojujícím prvkem jednotlivých příběhů s hlubokým psychologickým vhledem je postava silné ženy Olive Kitteridgeové. Obyvatelé amerického městečka Crosby prožívají svá traumata, starosti a složité vztahy ve třinácti jednotlivých příbězích. Všemi se vine jako jednotící prvek příběh Olive, bývalé učitelky, ženy silných emocí i sebekázně, hlubokého pochopení a životní síly. Olive není nijak kladnou hrdinkou - není ani milá ani půvabná, reaguje mnohdy impulsivně nebo panovačně, přesto je schopna dodávat lidem kolem sebe sílu svým pevným životním postojem a upřímností. Díky schopnosti hlubokého vcítění do duší a problémů ostatních a pochopením k okolnostem jejich příběhů je schopna nejen jasně vidět jejich situaci a někdy do ní i nenápadně účinně zasáhnout, ale i dospět k pochopení sebe sama, zvládat vlastní city a vyrovnat se s problémy vlastního života. Kniha, vyznačující se mistrnou psychologickou drobnokresbou, získala své autorce roku 2009 Pullitzerovu cenu.