The Things We Never Say

Apr 29

About the book

Author: Elizabeth Strout
Publisher: Random House

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

Buy and support indie bookstores (+ I earn a small commission):
Bookshop.org (print or ebook) | Libro.fm (audio)

My review

Like many, many other people, I love an Elizabeth Strout novel. She somehow breaks and heals your heart all in one book (sometimes all on one page) and yet also manages to make a story feel like a cozy, intimate thing. She sets herself a very high bar. And yet, reader, I think this book is one of her best of all time.

With The Things We Never Say, Strout leaves behind the mega-universe she’s built between all the Olive Kitteridge, Lucy Barton, and Bob Burgess stories in favor of an entirely new cast of characters, principal of whom is Artie Dam. Artie is a widely and deeply beloved high school history teacher with a wife and son who also love him very much, and yet he is deeply lonely. Especially in a post-pandemic world that feels increasingly tense and isolating.

Oh, the emotions!! It is really something special. I loved Artie deeply and cried multiple times, but also smiled and laughed just as much. She mostly sticks to Artie’s close third person, but she also occasionally jumps to peripheral characters’ close third to give us more context, and tbh, I think those are some of the most powerful moments of the whole book. It’s incredible how Strout can get away with having her characters just, like…SAY the things we are all feeling inside but never really talk about, and then the simple clarity of it all hits you in the gut like a punch.

The audiobook is also really good — Strout’s straightforward, heartfelt style lends itself so well to audio, and Robert Petkoff brings Artie to life beautifully.

The Things We Never Say feels like a grand return to Strout’s Olive Kitteridge glory that we didn’t even know we needed.

Check the trigger warnings below if you’re sensitive to certain topics, but otherwise please, PLEASE read this book ASAP. If it’s not on the prize lists, we revolt.