Elizabeth Strout - Böcker

"Varje ny bok av henne känns som en gåva" Ingalill Mosander

"Romanen efterlämnar en känsla av värme och hopp" Dagens Nyheter

”Ren läsnjutning!” Damernas Värld

"ett varsamt kalibrerat kammarspel" Borås Tidning

"en underbart levande bok från ett författarskap jag unnar varje läsare att bekanta sig med." Västerbottens-Kuriren

Mitt under pågående pandemi föreslår Lucy Bartons exmake William att de tillsammans ska fly New York. Trots deras trassliga förflutna följer Lucy med, fast övertygad om att det rör sig om ett par veckors vistelse i en lite kuststad i Maine. Under månaderna som följer är Lucy och William utelämnade till varandra och irritationen blir allt större i huset intill det lynniga, brusande havet.

Lucy kämpar med isoleringen och längtar tillbaka till sitt älskade New York. Hon konfronteras med sitt förflutna och sina sorger. Hon saknar sin nyss avlidne make, plågas av en väns död och tänker på de vuxna döttrarna, som inte längre tycks behöva henne. Hon ser hur döttrarna kämpar med sin kärlek till varandra, en kärlek som ibland lider av svår bitterhet och distans.

Men under promenaderna och i tystnaden finns också ett välgörande lugn och vila. Långsamt får livet en annan skärpa och en oväntad vänskap föds i mötet med grannen Bob. Häpen upptäcker hon att han känns närmare henne än vad William någonsin varit. Med små medel, en utsökt humor och en skarpsinnig blick skildrar Elizabeth Strout hur svår, nyckfull och vacker intimitet kan vara människor emellan.

Hyllade Elizabeth Strout är tillbaka med sin tredje roman om Lucy Barton i New York. Lucy har nyligen blivit änka och navigerar i den nya tillvaron som ensamstående mor till två vuxna döttrar. Efter många år isär hör hennes exman William plötsligt av sig och ber henne följa med på en resa för att gräva i en sedan länge dold familjehemlighet – en hemlighet med kraft att kullkasta allt de tror sig veta om varandra. En historia om rädsla och osäkerhet, om enkla nöjen och kärlekshandlingar och om de tysta krafter som binder människor samman, även när de har vuxit isär.

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.”

In March 2020 Lucy's ex-husband William pleads with her to leave New York and escape to a coastal house he has rented in Maine. Lucy reluctantly agrees, leaving the washing-up in the sink, expecting to be back in a week or two. Weeks turn into months, and it's just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the sea. Rich with empathy and a searing clarity, Lucy by the Sea evokes the fragility and uncertainty of the recent past, as well as the possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this miraculous novel are the deep human connections that sustain us, even as the world seems to be falling apart.

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning. Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which we our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”

With her remarkable insight into the human condition and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?” It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning. Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn't always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive's own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life-sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition-its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.