A novel to treasure… Olive, Again, like Strout’s first book, delivers roughly five hours of spine-tingling pleasure.

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

Emotionally honest, psychologically piercing and ultimately life-affirming

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.

Strout again demonstrates her gift for zeroing in on ordinary moments in the lives of ordinary people to highlight their extraordinary resilience

She gets better with each book

Glorious

A perfect novel

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

Elizabeth Strout is… one of the undisputed heavyweights of generous, clear-eyed domestic realism

A special, precious book…full of hope and humanity

Funny, sad, tender and truthful, this is pure joy

A powerful storyteller immersed in the nuances of human relationships

Strout really can write you into a world until you feel you are there with her, in that house, that life, that little Podunk of a place

Writing of this quality comes from a commitment to listening, from a perfect attunement to the human condition, from an attention to reality so exact that it goes beyond a skill and becomes a virtue

Strout, always good, just keeps getting better

A writer at the peak of her powers

It’s hard to believe that a year after the astonishing My Name Is Lucy Barton Elizabeth Strout could bring us another book that is by every measure its equal, but what Strout proves to us again and again is that where she’s concerned, anything is possible. This book, this writer, are magnificent.

Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force