The new novel starts shortly after Olive Kitteridge ended, when her ornery title character, lonely after the death of her husband Henry, struck up an unlikely friendship with Jack Kennison, a Harvard professor whom she and Henry had dismissed as one of those entitled, arrogant retirees from out-of-state. A master of the story cycle form which Sherwood Anderson put his stamp on with Winesburg, Ohio, Strout has at this point pretty much out-Winesburged him with her cumulative, time-lapse portrait of the people of Crosby, Maine. In book after book, from Amy and Isabelle to Anything is Possible, she's plumbed the heartaches and headaches of her characters, capturing their regrets, their moments of grace, and their flawed humanity with clear-eyed compassion. Well, that Elizabeth Strout! She continues to amaze (if no longer surprise) me. Explaining the genesis of her sequel, Strout has written, 'That Olive! She continues to surprise me, continues to enrage me, continues to sadden me, and continues to make me love her.' Like a base coat of paint, it adds depth and helps the finish colors pop. You don't have to have read Olive Kitteridge to appreciate Olive, Again, but you'll probably want to. Ten years after Elizabeth Strout won a Pulitzer Prize for her eponymous collection of linked stories about Olive Kitteridge, a difficult but endearing, retired but not retiring middle school math teacher, she returns to coastal Maine with an update - which is just as wonderful as the original. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. National BestsellerĪvailable in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Olive, Again Author Elizabeth Strout Witty and often profound, Amy and Isabelle confirmed Elizabeth Strout as a powerful new talent. 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.

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.Īs 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 eating, sleeping, and working side by side in the gossip-ridden mill town of Shirley Falls doesn't help matters. 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.

In her stunning 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.

Isabelle and amy book review