



Olive, Again (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel (Unabridged)
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3.6 • 502 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
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
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PEOPLE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY 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
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.”
Praise for Olive, Again
“Olive is a brilliant creation not only because of her eternal cantankerousness but because she’s as brutally candid with herself about her shortcomings as she is with others. Her honesty makes people strangely willing to confide in her, and the raw power of Ms. Strout’s writing comes from these unvarnished exchanges, in which characters reveal themselves in all of their sadness and badness and confusion. . . . The great, terrible mess of living is spilled out across the pages of this moving book. Ms. Strout may not have any answers for it, but she isn’t afraid of it either.”—The Wall Street Journal
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Oprah calls her new book club pick “one of those books that you start and don’t want to put down.” And whether or not you already know Olive Kitteridge—the prickly heroine Elizabeth Strout first introduced to the world in 2008—we’re certain that Olive, Again will make you fall in love with her little slice of the world. The book draws us into Olive’s richly layered inner life and explores the changing landscape—human and otherwise—of her small Maine town. Age has done very little to mellow Strout’s grump of a heroine, whose disdain for everything from “stupid” baby showers to uppity city people is channeled impeccably by actress Kimberly Farr. The Broadway regular creates vivid voices for all the other intriguing residents of Crosby, Maine, nailing Strout’s tricky shifts in character, tone, and pacing. Like a box of fancy chocolates, we savored these 13 interconnected stories one at a time—but we wouldn’t blame you if you gorged on them all at once. Strout’s book is a marvel—in no small part because it reminds us to love hard and well while we can.
Customer Reviews
Heartbreaking
Aging is not for the faint hearted! This book really tells it like it is. Olive has reached her 70's, she has buried one husband is now marrying again. Through a series of connected stories we again enter Olive's world in Maine. Some of the stories are heart breaking.
An old friend!
The book made it feel like you are with Olive as she aged. Lovely!
Enjoyable
I loved listening to this audiobook, I laughed aloud many times, and found Olive to be my new favorite character, and I havent read the first novel yet.
Looking forward to reading all of Strouts novels now, feeling like I discovered buried treasure.