Tell Me Everything: Oprah's Book Club: A Novel

by Elizabeth Strout, Kimberly Farr (Read by)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The ultimate Elizabeth Strout story: Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge teaching us about ourselves, one page at a time.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a “generous, compassionate novel” (San Francisco Chronicle) about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world.

“A rich tapestry, intricately wrought yet effortlessly realized, both suspenseful and meditative.”—The Boston Globe

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.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593669488
Publisher:	Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/24/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	248,385
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 5.92(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth Strout is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lucy by the Sea; Oh William!, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Olive, Again; Anything Is Possible, winner of the Story Prize; My Name Is Lucy Barton; The Burgess Boys; Olive Kitteridge, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London. She lives in Maine.

Hometown:

Brooklyn, New York

Date of Birth:

January 6, 1956

Place of Birth:

Portland, Maine

Education:

B.A., Bates College, 1977; J.D., Syracuse College of Law, 1982

Website:

http://www.elizabethstrout.com

Editorial Reviews

A generous, compassionate novel about the human need for connection, understanding and love, and the damage that occurs when those things are denied.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A rich tapestry, intricately wrought yet effortlessly realized, both suspenseful and meditative . . . Suffering and the enduring of it, the human impulse to solve and resolve confronting the fundamental unknowability of others and life’s essential mystery, finding hope, love, and connection in improbable places: Strout’s perpetual preoccupations are here explored with clear sighted rigor, emotional generosity, and bighearted joy.”—The Boston Globe

“[Strout’s] books are really about exploring characters so rich that they reveal more of themselves in book after book after book.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“No need to have read Strout’s other work to fall in love with this stand-alone story that explores the quiet impact we have on each other every day.”—Real Simple

“Strout covers the ghosts of marriages and the indignity of old age with her usual thoughtfulness.”—Vulture

“This book may be the epitome of literary fun . . . Once again, Strout has managed to compress key histories from her earlier books into a few telling sentences, a miracle of distillation that opens this novel, and the Strout ecosystem, to new and old readers alike.”—Portland Press-Herald

“Quietly wonderful and wise.”—AAR

“Rejoice, Strout fans . . . the author concerns herself and her characters with the art of narrative . . . a reminder that our mistakes make up our most interesting tales.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“Life, thank goodness, goes on in Strout’s remarkably-crafted world.”—Town and Country

“Strout weaves a gossamer-light web of a community’s hopes and setbacks.”—The Guardian

“Strout superfans will be thrilled to see the prickly protagonist of the author’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Olive Kitteridge . . . finally cross paths with the tender heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton and Lucy by the Sea. But if you’ve never cracked the spine of a Strout novel before, don’t sweat it—you’ll feel like a Crosby, Maine, local by the end of the first chapter.”—Oprah Daily

“Another deeply human and vibrant portrait of relationships, Tell Me Everything will bring the cozy and comforting story that fans have come to expect.”—She Reads

“With tenderness, honesty, intimacy, and compassion, Strout uses her cunning powers of observation to draw readers beyond the mundane to the miraculous complexities where true friendship lies. . . . An absolute must-have.”—Booklist, starred review

“The narrative threads make for dishy small-town drama, but even more satisfying are the insights Strout weaves into the dialogue. Longtime fans and newcomers alike will relish this.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 06/17/2024

The latest from Pulitzer winner Strout (Olive Kitteridge) brings together characters from her previous novels for a masterly meditation on storytelling. After 86-year-old Mainer Gloria Beach is found dead in a quarry, semi-retired lawyer Bob Burgess agrees to represent Gloria’s son, Matthew, who is the prime suspect in her possible murder. Bob has grown close to author Lucy Barton, who moved to the area from New York City during the pandemic, and the duo spend hours walking together and chatting. After Bob takes Matthew’s case, Lucy calls him a “sin eater,” a term that came to her mind during a recent chat with Olive Kitteridge, who’s been inviting Lucy over to her retirement community to gossip about their neighbors. As Bob works with Matthew on preparing his defense in the event of a murder charge, he begins to wonder if he’s falling in love with Lucy. Though Olive doesn’t say anything, she’s been convinced all along that Lucy and Bob are developing feelings for each other. The narrative threads make for dishy small-town drama, but even more satisfying are the insights Strout weaves into the dialogue. Late in the novel, after Olive asks Lucy the point of writing stories, she responds, “People and the lives they lead. That’s the point.” Longtime fans and newcomers alike will relish this. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2024-07-04
A group of familiar characters cluster around an almost-romance between writer Lucy Barton and lawyer Bob Burgess.

Strout’s latest novel is essentially a collection of stories, many of them shared by Lucy and Olive Kitteridge, who somewhat arbitrarily set this plotline in motion by telling Bob, “I have a story to tell that writer....I wish you would have her come visit me.” Lucy relocated to Crosby, Maine, with her ex-husband, William, during the pandemic, conveniently bringing together the people and backstories from most of Strout’s previous fiction. Among those returning with new chapters in their histories are Bob’s brother, Jim; sister, Susan; and ex-wife, Pam; along with his current wife, Margaret, a local minister who may be ousted by a parishioner whose defining quality is that he sleeps during services. The parishioner’s motive is never specified, which suits the overall tone of a novel anchored in the central premise of Strout’s work: “We all are such mysteries.” When Olive asks Lucy with irritation what the point of one of her stories is (readers may be wondering the same), Lucy answers, “People and the lives they lead. That’s the point.” A murder case in which Bob is defending a man accused of killing his mother offers the only firm closure here; more typical is another twist in the long-running issue of who was responsible for the death of Jim and Bob’s father, which culminates with the declaration, “No one willever know.” Even Bob’s growing attraction to Lucy, though it reaches a crisis, subsides without definitive resolution. Strout’s tenderness for her characters and her belief that love is the only force in human lives as powerful as our essential loneliness are as moving as ever. But this all seems like very well-plowed terrain.

Strout’s many fans will love this sweet, rambling tale. More critical readers may feel it’s time for her to move on.

Kirkus Reviews