Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

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.”

Oh, Elizabeth Strout. Thank you for giving me a little escape when I really needed it. I love being in Crosby and Shirley Falls and NYC with these characters, listening to their honest and realistic dialog, and absorbing their wisdom about love, loss, friendship, and change. I listened to this one and highly recommend.

Elizabeth Strout's latest brings together three of her most popular MCs (as well as numerous other recognizable secondary characters): Lucy Barton from [b:Lucy by the Sea 60657583 Lucy by the Sea Elizabeth Strout https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1650574627l/60657583.SY75.jpg 95604434], Bob Burgess from [b:The Burgess Boys 15823461 The Burgess Boys Elizabeth Strout https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1351213545l/15823461.SY75.jpg 21553934], and the unforgettable [b:Olive Kitteridge 1736739 Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1) Elizabeth Strout https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320430655l/1736739.SY75.jpg 3263906]. Over the course of a year in their small Maine hometown, Lucy and Olive tell stories to each other about the “unrecorded lives” of their friends and family who experienced heartache, loss, scarcity and occasional joy. Bob and Lucy take regular walks together, sharing these stories and growing closer, despite the fact that both have long-term partners. Strout has an amazing talent of fostering reader empathy about even the most minor secondary characters, including the ones we only meet secondhand through Lucy and Olive's stories. There is very little action in the novel, just numerous small but important moments and meditations on loneliness, love, grief, and purpose. Bob, a criminal defense attorney, helps a reclusive oddball who is suspected of killing his own mother, but even that subplot lacks the urgency of a standard courtroom thriller. Strout's work is catnip to an aging retiree like me who is “immature” enough (Bob's criticism of Lucy) to still wonder about the Meaning of Life. I've read almost all of her novels, so Tell Me Everything felt like catching up with old friends. I'll be interested to see how it is received by Oprah Book Club devotees who are unfamiliar with the author's backlist.