Tell Me Everything

By: Elizabeth Strout

Narrated by: Kimberly Farr

Brought to you by Penguin.

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

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

Understanding of human relationships

This is Elizabeth Strout at her very best. She has such a keen understanding of people, their frailties, their goodness and their joys. Bravo to the author!

No Elizabeth, No!

What a bitty, snippy, variety show, unless some other plan for Olive Kitteridge can be devised, maybe she should retire. She sits on the sidelines as a grumpy grandma. Why? The only character with any strength in his backbone is Bob Burgess. I love this author and I love Olive in her other novels, but this one feels like snippets That landed on the editing floor and were strung together to make this book! Wasted my precious credit!