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Tell Me Everything

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About this listen

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

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

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
Olive Kitteridge and Lucy were my favourite parts of the novel. Elizabeth Strout’s writing is like being g held in a safe pair of hands. Her use of prose is outstanding. I loved this book and would highly recommend it. Veronica

Brilliant writing

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Love is love. This is the theme of this no. I do not know what else I can say about it.

Superb

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what a joy to listen to this latest Elizabeth Strout. the narrator is superb, the writing brilliant, the stories moving as always

what a joy to listen to this latest Elizabeth Strout

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Wonderful characters with such vivid richness, brilliantly brought to life in the reading, one of the best narrators I’ve ever listened to.

Brilliant narration

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I only found Elizabeth Strout a few months ago and her books are wonderful. This one is my favourite so far, I think it is better than her Pulitzer Prize winner “Olive Kitteridge” which she wrote 16 years ago in 2008. Elizabeth has written a few books about the characters in Olive Kitterage’s life, her Lucy Barton books also interweave with the same, and many new people. So it’s a good idea to look at all of her titles and to read them in order although they are all also brilliant as stand alone novels. This book, “Tell me everything,” was perceptive, intriguing, poignant and just lovely. Slow moving but so beautifully done that the pace was just perfect, it’s like all of her books, about relationships, real life and its meaning. I absolutely loved it and I am going to listen to it again. The narrator, Kimberly Farr, who reads all of her books, is now my favourite narrator and I thank her because a good reader is such a joy to the listener.

Another beautiful book by Elizabeth Strout. What an uplifting listen.

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