Description

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING, BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE 2025

‘Stunning, deeply felt and profoundly intelligent’ Guardian

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 nearby in a house next to the sea. Together, Lucy and Bob talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been.

Lucy, meanwhile, befriends one of Crosby’s longest inhabitants, 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.”

‘A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own’ Hilary Mantel

‘A terrific writer’ Zadie Smith

‘Strout’s ability to reveal the wonder in unrecorded lives continues to astonish’ Telegraph

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK: ‘A beautiful read reminding us that there is extraordinary love in ordinary actions’ Oprah Winfrey

Elizabeth Strout, Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 2022

Publisher Review

Strout is, as ever, wonderfully attentive to life’s inescapable cruelties and woes * Sunday Times * ‘The shrewd-eyed observer of love, loss and the ties that bind – life, basically – is back. Strout weaves a gossamer light web of a community’s hopes and setbacks.’ — Observer Strout’s ability to reveal the wonder in unrecorded lives continues to astonish * Telegraph * Elizabeth Strout welcomes us home again, back to the small town where we witness the interconnection of all the characters we’ve ever loved in her previous novels. It’s a beautiful read reminding us that there is extraordinary love in ordinary actions. — Oprah Winfrey Stunning, deeply felt and profoundly intelligent * Guardian * Strout delivers that most terrible and yet important of literary cliches: a book with heart * Financial Times * I’m looking forward to the return of another literary friend, Lucy Barton, when Elizabeth Strout publishes Tell Me Everything in August’ * The Irish Times – The best books of 2024 so far * A stunner that unites beloved characters from her previous books… Strout’s musing on life and the importance of storytelling are downright profound * People * Pathos and dry humour gild tender reflections on loneliness and connection, and the redemptive power of storytelling. * Observer * Above all, Tell Me Everything is a novel of moods, how they govern our personal lives and public spaces, reflected in Strout’s shimmering technique * Washington Post *