Elizabeth Strout: Tell Me Everything

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. Together, they spend afternoons in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories about people they have known – ‘unrecorded lives,’ as 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.

Elizabeth Strout is the Pulitzer prize-winning author of My Name is Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Oh, William! and Lucy by the Sea. She has been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize.

Alex Clark is a journalist and broadcaster who regularly hosts live events. She writes for The Guardian and The Observer and co-hosts The Times Literary Supplement‘s weekly podcast and the Graham Norton Book Club on Audible. She lives in Kilkenny, Ireland.