Olive, Again: A Novel (Olive, 2)
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK - Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout continues the life of her beloved Olive Kitteridge, a character who has captured the imaginations of millions.
"Strout managed to make me love this strange woman I'd never met, who I knew nothing about. What a terrific writer she is."--Zadie Smith, The Guardian "Just as wonderful as the original . . . Olive, Again poignantly reminds us that empathy, a requirement for love, helps make life 'not unhappy.'"--NPR ONE OF PEOPLE'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive Kitteridge is "a compelling life force" (San Francisco Chronicle). The New Yorker has said that Elizabeth Strout "animates the ordinary with an astonishing force," and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire us--in Strout's words--"to bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can." A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, Vogue, NPR, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, BuzzFeed, Esquire, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, The New York Public Library, The Guardian, Evening Standard, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, BookPage
"Strout managed to make me love this strange woman I'd never met, who I knew nothing about. What a terrific writer she is."--Zadie Smith, The Guardian "Just as wonderful as the original . . . Olive, Again poignantly reminds us that empathy, a requirement for love, helps make life 'not unhappy.'"--NPR ONE OF PEOPLE'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive Kitteridge is "a compelling life force" (San Francisco Chronicle). The New Yorker has said that Elizabeth Strout "animates the ordinary with an astonishing force," and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire us--in Strout's words--"to bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can." A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, Vogue, NPR, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, BuzzFeed, Esquire, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, The New York Public Library, The Guardian, Evening Standard, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, BookPage
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Community Reviews
I loved this book even more than the first. Loved the character development, as with the first, but especially appreciated how Strout’s story explores the physical and psychic realities of growing older.
I enjoyed Olive, Again just as much, if not more, than Olive Kitteridge. Olive is such a fun character and Elizabeth Strout has a way of writing about everyday people, doing everyday things, where she makes it so compelling, interesting and relatable. Olive is much older in this book - eighty-three by the end - and we follow her through life as she deals with the many changes and challenges that growing old brings. As with the first book, the chapters jump around, featuring different people who live in the same hometown as Olive in Maine. Often, this format bothers me, but Strout quickly and skilfully engages you with new fly-on-the-wall observations of these normal people's lives. And, things always tie into Olive, in some way or another. I assume there won't be a third book, but if there is, I would read it in a heartbeat.
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