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Tell Me Everything

Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025

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Tell Me Everything

By: Elizabeth Strout
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
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THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING, BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2025


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.”

'Stunning, deeply felt and profoundly intelligent' Guardian

'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

©2024 Elizabeth Strout (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural Women's Fiction Inspiring Heartfelt Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

Strout is, as ever, wonderfully attentive to life’s inescapable cruelties and woes
'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
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
Strout delivers that most terrible and yet important of literary clichés: a book with heart
I'm looking forward to the return of another literary friend, Lucy Barton, when Elizabeth Strout publishes Tell Me Everything in August'
A stunner that unites beloved characters from her previous books... Strout's musing on life and the importance of storytelling are downright profound
Pathos and dry humour gild tender reflections on loneliness and connection, and the redemptive power of storytelling.
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
All stars
Most relevant
Wonderful book. I could start all over again! All humanity is there relayed with such tenderness.

Brilliantly read. Bravo to the reader

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This is the third book I have read by Elizabeth Stroud and I love them- but I am never quite sure why. Nothing and everything happens, they seem so slow yet they are so multi layered that you get really engrossed in each character’s life and stories and flaws. I feel like I’m sitting back and having a wonderful chat with an old and dear friend. Really beautiful.

Beautiful narration

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The humanity that the author always uses, she’s a fine storyteller and it was well read.

The story

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Love the realism of the characters and their situations. A compassionate exploration of different stories, leading us to a greater understanding of the paradoxical nature of human beings.

Gentle but profound

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I found this very compelling listening.
Having read all of Elizabeth Strout’s previous novels I felt as though I was revisiting the lives of old friends.
It was such a moving meditation on old age,
Marriage life and love in all its complexity.
The characters are completely believable and sometimes their mundane lives are fascinating.


A moving meditation on life and love.

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