Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance copy of this book in return for an unbiased review. This is part of a set of books all set in small town(s) in Maine. I haven’t read any of the others but actually I don’t think that matters- all the characters are so well drawn you feel like you know them very quickly into the book anyway. Early on I wondered if much would happen but plenty did, with common threads running through, such as Lucy and Olive’s shared stories of unrecorded lives. It’s really a story of Bob Burgess though, he’s such a great character, someone you could properly rely on and hope to have as a friend. I would imagine that if you have read the rest of the books you would absolutely love this.

Tell Me Everything has Strout returning us to the small town of Crosby, Maine. Here we see the convergence of 3 of her most popular book characters: Lucy Barton, Bob Burgess and Olive Kitteridge.

Bob has taken on a case where a man who is a loner is a suspect of his mother’s disappearance. He continues to meet Lucy regularly, on their walks together. Meanwhile Lucy is still living with her ex-husband William. She meets with Olive Kitteridge regularly and they discuss stories of people they have known, ‘unrecorded lives’.

While this does have some form of a plot (the murder storyline Bob is part of), the real force behind this book are people. Namely the relationships people have with each other. We see it reflected in the stories of tje 3 main characters interacting with each other, but also how they interact with others in their lives (with Bob, it’s his wife, his ex-wife and his siblings. With Lucy, it’s her ex-husband and her children. And with Olive, it’s with her friend Isabelle).

Outside of that, there’s also the stories that Olive and Lucy tell each other. Simple stories about others and their loneliness and vulnerabilities. Strout has such a simple but effective way of pulling at heartstrings.

I also loved all the cameos of other characters from the Stroutverse. It was great to see them all come together like that.

I've had mixed results with Strout in the past. I absolutely adored Amy & Isabelle (one of my favourite books ever), really enjoyed the Lucy Barton/Amgash series, quite liked Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys and disliked Abide with Me. Strout's writing is always a joy to return to though, even if every book isn't a smash hit.

Tell Me Everything, Strout's latest novel out in September, is #5 in the Amgash series, and it's the first time that many of Strout's regular characters collide in one book. Lucy meets Olive, Bob Burgess is back as a main character, and there are many references to storylines in her other books that pull all the threads in the Strout universe together.

I loved Tell Me Everything. It's gentle and quirky, whilst not shying away from difficult subjects, and it's imbued with a humanity so typical of Strout's writing. I hate even saying it but this book had the feel of being Strout's last; I really hope it's not.

Lucy sums up what the point of the book is better than I can in the following passage:

"People," Lucy said quietly, leaning back. "People and the lives they lead. That's the point."
"Exactly," Olive nodded.

Thank you so much to @penguinbooksireland for the #gifted arc. Tell Me Everything will be published in September. It can be read as a standalone, do yourself a favour and buy the whole damn lot, as Bob might say.

Absolutely loved this. Elizabeth Strout does it again pulling you into the world of Olive, would highly recommend!

Tell me everything transport's you back to the realm of Crosby inhabited by Olive Kitteridge. Full of charm, Strout's prose slowly unfolds through conversation and observation, nothing is rushed and revelations come gradually. Like all her work Strout focuses on human interaction rather than action - little of note takes place, but worlds are shattered, repaired and rebuilt.

A beautiful view of small town America.

I absolutely ADORE Elizabeth Strout's writing. I was introduced to it during a module at undergrad in 2017. I've read everything she's published since then and find immense comfort and joy following Lucy throughout her life, I truly hope we continue to get these episodes. The mix of Lucy and Olive is everything I ever wanted. So beautifully drawn and complex reflections on life. Simply phenomenal More Amgash please!

"Tell Me Everything" by Elizabeth Strout is a beautifully crafted exploration of the human experience, capturing the complexities of relationships, loss, and the quiet moments that shape us. Strout's prose is both lyrical and poignant, drawing readers into the inner lives of her characters with an intimacy that feels almost revelatory. Each page resonates with emotional depth, as she deftly navigates the intersections of love and sorrow. This novel is a testament to Strout's mastery in portraying the nuances of everyday life, leaving readers with a profound sense of connection and understanding. A truly touching read that lingers long after the final page.

I read most, if not all Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton books - they have a very relaxing effect on me. The characters by now feel like old acquaintances.

There are lots of "Oh Bob's" and "Oh Lucy's" and "I get that", and "I hear you". And the optimistic message is that all humans are wonderfully complex beings...a thesis I would challenge most days, but I am happy to indulge in once a year when a new Elizabeth Strout comes out.

Tell me everything by Elizabeth Strout

I am a massive fan of Elizabeth Strout's writing so this is unlikely to be an unbiased review. Tell me everything is one of my favourite books of the year. It returns to characters we already know and love from Strout's earlier novels and we see a friendship develop between Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge as they share stories from their Iives.
For me, it felt like such a comfort read and I didn't want it to end. If you haven't read this (and Strout's back catalogue) you are in for a treat!

Thank you to negalleyuk, the publishers and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

#Scottishreader #irishbookstagram

4.5 stars. Ahh Strout. Her books to me are a balm for the soul and a comforting respite from a busy world. You can keep your Sally Rooneys with their navel-gazing millennial angst and your high octane twisty thrillers. Here, Strout’s characters tell the stories of their lives to one another and seek comfort in listening to a friend.

In this the fifth book in the Amgash series, Strout returns to small town Crosby, Maine where Lucy Barton finally meets my favourite straight-talking character, Olive Kitteridge. Lucy starts to visit Olive in her retirement home and the two exchange extraordinary stories of ordinary folks they have encountered in their lives.

Meanwhile, Bob Burgess (married to Margaret) the semi-retired lawyer, takes regular walks with Lucy by the river and the two chat about their lives and day to day encounters they have had with others.

In the course of this book, Bob won my heart. Heck, he might even be my new favourite Strout character. Bob is asked to take on the defence case of a local man, Matthew Beach, who is accused of disappearing his mother. And so there unfolds a murder investigation and a detective strand to this tale.

Some heavyweight themes are covered: grief, death, sexual abuse, alcoholism, extra-marital affairs. Yet because most of the trauma is recounted rather than told through a first-person narrative, I felt more able to to cope with the content without it ever becoming too unbearable and visceral to read.

This is a book about love and friendship in all its guises. As Lucy says, ‘Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love’. For me this is Strout’s finest work to date and she has cemented her place as a treasured storyteller in my heart.

With thanks to NetGalley, Penguin General UK and Viking Books UK for granting me the digital ARC for this review.

If you've already been introduced to Olive Kitteridge, Lucy and William Barton, and Bob Burgess, you'll be pleased to meet them again here. If you haven't met them yet, don't worry, just dive in!

All Elizabeth Strout's novels are so gentle and quiet and wry, with her astute observations of people of a certain age living in a small town in Maine, America.

This time Bob Burgess has been asked to defend a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother.

And Lucy has befriended Olive Kitteridge in her retirement home and visits her regularly to talk together about the people they have known.

Bob and Lucy have built a strong platonic relationship and enjoy meeting to talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been.

The novel moves at an easy pace. Nothing much happens and yet so much happens. It's poignant and amusing, sad yet full of hope. I loved it. I couldn't put it down and was sorry when I came to the end. Looking forward to the next one!

Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton are two of the most fascinating and enigmatic characters ever imagined by any author. Their lives, while ordinary and typically undramatic, are marked by keen observation and thoughtfulness that are just outstanding. Elizabeth Strout's relaxed narrative style is closely tied to Olive and Lucy's reflective behaviour.

Thinking back to the captivating Pulitzer prize-winning book Olive Kitteridge, whose multiple stories encircled Olive. Or the reflective weight of Lucy’s childhood in My Name is Lucy Barton. Strout is a master at the subtlety she builds around consequential stories delicately related to her main characters. I have followed their lives through multiple books. In Tell Me Everything, Lucy and Olive spend time together in Crosby, Maine, sharing almost philosophical stories as they interpret meaning and significance in events and people they encounter.

“I don’t know what the point is to this story!” “People,” Lucy said quietly, leaning back. “People and the lives they lead. That’s the point.”
“Exactly,” Olive nodded.

While we adore Olive and Lucy sharing their discussions and views, the main character focus in the book is Bob Burgess. Bob is another personality in the Olive and Lucy universe that heightens our feelings of connection to others, concerns, love, vulnerabilities, desires and private moments in our imagination. Bob’s relationship with Lucy is exquisitely depicted, and the issues they deal with during the novel range from family relationships to murder and a profound revelation of emotional sentiments.

I would highly recommend Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout, and perhaps one quote from the book that sums it up so beautifully and gives us our thought for the day.

“People always tell you who they are if you just listen—they will always eventually tell you who they are.”

I want to thank Penguin General UK and NetGalley for providing a free ARC in return for an honest review.

Elizabeth Strout has done it again, and I mean that as both compliment and 'criticism'. The undeniable magic is wearing a little thin for me, although objectively I can see that this is just as good as the other works in the series. I told myself after the previous instalment that I'd take a break, but when it came to it I couldn't resist, and now I feel a little regretful, like I've eaten one too many chocolates. Not a thing I ever thought I'd say about good books, let alone chocolate.

Anyway, it was still wonderful, and it still made me cry a few times times - Strout has a talent for putting heartbreaking tenderness about human experience onto the page with disarming directness.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I first encountered Elizabeth Strout via her novels Olive Kitteridge and Olive Again, and have since read the Lucy Barton books too, but as a character, Lucy Barton has never resonated with me in the way Olive did.

This is the fourth novel featuring Lucy, although Olive is here too. Lucy has come to live in Crosby, Maine, with her ex husband William and close to her old friend Bob Burgess. At the start of the book we are told that this is Bob's story and I suppose it is in the sense that it is a snapshot of a year or so in his life that is quite difficult and sees a couple of quiet crisis points. Bob is a good man, a lawyer with a sense of justice who is not getting any younger. He takes on the defence of a man accused of murdering his brother, at the same time as Bob's own brother loses his wife to cancer, and as his regular walks with Lucy Barton threaten to disrupt his stable but slightly unsatisfactory marriage. The way the stress of all these events builds and is dealt with by Bob is done very well, and I thought very realistically in a non-sensational, this-is-what-sensible-people-do kind of way.

Unfortunately there is something about the writing style of all the Lucy books that actively irritates me. In this one there is an authorial omniscience in the third-person narration that feels very old-fashioned and heavy-handed, and an authorial philosophising commentary of sorts in the exclamation marks and little asides that distanced me a great deal as a reader. The writing is quite disjointed, with almost random jump cuts that feel odd and wrong somehow. A bit like a person with mild dementia, except there isn't a narrator to pin that on. The phrase "as we mentioned earlier" is repeated multiple times, clumsily highlighting links in the story, as if we as readers aren't clever enough to join the dots or pay attention to detail.

I might have been less harsh about this novel if I hadn't been so bowled over by the Olive Kitteridge books; but having read those I know what Elizabeth Strout is capable of as a writer, and for my money she doesn't come close to achieving her potential here.

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout is an introspective novel that brings together characters from her previous works, including Lucy Barton and Olive Kitteridge. Set in small-town Maine, the story focuses on human connections and the struggles of ordinary lives. While the book's episodic structure and leisurely pacing may not appeal to everyone, particularly those who prefer plot-driven stories, I'm sure that Strout's fans will appreciate her continued exploration of familiar themes.

As someone who reads everything Elizabeth Strout writes, I loved this novel and it feels like a gift whenever there is a new opportunity to revisit these characters. She captures loneliness and emotion in a way that feels intimate and real, a stunning mirror for our own lives.

Tell me everything

As a woman in her sixties, it’s rare that I feel seen in real life let alone in literature. Typically, older characters are stereotyped as doddery, forgetful technophobes who’ve outlived their usefulness, when in truth we have a rich vein of life experience to share.
 
Elizabeth Strout gets this. Probably because she’s one of us. As a result, Tell Me Everything is populated almost exclusively by women and men in the autumn of their lives. And while there is a certain melancholy running through the narrative, it is ultimately a story that gladdens your heart.
 
This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024, promising to bring together two of Strout’s iconic female characters, Olive Kitteridge, now aged 90, and Lucy Barton, now 66, along with Bill Burgess from her 2013 novel The Burgess Boys.
 
To my surprise, it is semi-retired lawyer Bill who turns out to be the beating heart of this novel, revealing an extraordinary capacity for compassion as he takes on the defence of a local man accused of murdering his elderly mother.
 
Strout has a singular talent for fashioning something extraordinary from the quotidian. Like all of her writing, Tell Me Everything is a quiet, gentle novel; but one nevertheless of astonishing profundity, exploring humankind in all its many facets, from love, loss and loneliness, to kindness, empathy and the connections we make with each other.
 
I loved the friendship that grew between Lucy and curmudgeonly Olive, through the sharing of confidences and stories; but even more so, the tender but uncomfortable fondness which blossomed between Lucy and Bill on their weekly walks.
 
There is always much to admire in Strout’s writing, but for me it is her keen observational eye that never fails to impress. And here it is scimitar sharp, stirring in me a spontaneous empathy for all of her characters, but perhaps most resonantly with Lucy, whose ponderings on the purpose of life felt like echoes in my own head.

I adore Elizabeth Strout's way of depicting small-town lives. The connections between her characters and the emotional depth she brings to each story make her books a true pleasure to read.

“ If you don’t think everyone is broken in some way, you’re wrong”

There is hope and love and loss and trauma, tales of unrecorded lives and stories of old favourites. I’d have liked more Bob.

Catching up it’s old friends whilst at the same time getting to know acquaintances a little better is always a good thing and that’s exactly what this book did for me. The style of Elizabeth Strout’s writing is so comfortable her books are always a delight.
The only words of advice though are if you haven’t read any of the author’s previous work don’t start with this one.