Tell Me Everything: A Novel

In this fifth book of the Amgash series, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to familiar characters, including Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton. Here, a shocking murder of a mocked and despised elderly woman and the possible prosecution of her adult but psychologically stunted son form the backdrop of the novel. However, the real story is found in Strout’s deep exploration of her characters’ lives and how their pasts inevitably shape the present. As defense lawyer Bob Burgess argues to his nephew, none of Strout’s characters are evil: they are simply broken.

On first glance, this novel may sound disheartening or dismal, as some significant trauma haunts each character. Far from it, however. Strout writes with such thoughtfulness and compassion that the characters’ brokenness takes on a grace and beauty, which leaves the reader feeling better about the human condition and the world. Ultimately, love, in its myriad forms, prevails. Tell Me Everything will both pull readers in and stay with them long after they have read the last chapter.