Olive, Again

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Number One New York Times bestselling author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton

'A terrific writer' Zadie Smith

'A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own' Hilary Mantel

'A novel to treasure' Sunday Times

Olive, Again follows the blunt, contradictory yet deeply loveable Olive Kitteridge as she grows older, navigating the second half of her life as she comes to terms with the changes - sometimes welcome, sometimes not - in her own existence and in those around her.

Olive adjusts to her new life with her second husband, challenges her estranged son and his family to accept him, experiences loss and loneliness, witnesses the triumphs and heartbreaks of her friends and neighbours in the small coastal town of Crosby, Maine - and, finally, opens herself to new lessons about life.

'A powerful storyteller immersed in the nuances of human relationships' Observer

'She gets better with each book' Maggie O'Farrell

'Her writing is exquisite; her vision is boundless. What a sublime book.' Rachel Joyce

'Glorious' The Times

'A perfect novel' Financial Times

Review: A novel to treasure... Olive, Again, like Strout's first book, delivers roughly five hours of spine-tingling pleasure. * Sunday Times *
Olive, Again is a tour de force. With extraordinary economy of prose - few writers can pack so much emotion, so much emotion, so much detail into a single paragraph - Strout immerses us in the lives of her characters, each so authentically drawn as to be deserving of an entire novel themselves. Compassionate, masterly and profound, this is a writer at the height of her powers * Observer *
Emotionally honest, psychologically piercing and ultimately life-affirming * The i *
Her writing is exquisite; her vision is boundless. What a sublime book.
A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own. In Olive, Again, she teaches us that there is always more to know about human beings, even the ones we are closest to.
There's no simple truth about human existence, Strout reminds us, only wonderful, painful complexity. 'Well, that's life,' Olive says. 'Nothing you can do about it.' Beautifully written and alive with compassion, at times almost unbearably poignant. A thrilling book in every way. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *
Strout again demonstrates her gift for zeroing in on ordinary moments in the lives of ordinary people to highlight their extraordinary resilience * Publishers Weekly, starred review *
She gets better with each book
Glorious * The Times *
A perfect novel * Financial Times *
In Olive Kitteridge, Strout has created one of those rare characters...so vivid and humorous they seems to take on a life independent of the story framing them * Guardian *
Elizabeth Strout is... one of the undisputed heavyweights of generous, clear-eyed domestic realism * Daily Mail *
A special, precious book...full of hope and humanity * Red *
Funny, sad, tender and truthful, this is pure joy * Stylist *
A terrific writer -- Zadie Smith