TELL ME EVERYTHING

Narrator Kimberly Farr pretty much owns Elizabeth Strout's Maine characters at this point, and what a good thing that is. This quietly compelling novel brings together Strout's beloved, sometimes maddening, always vivid characters from multiple novels past, many of them also performed by Farr. Life and time have landed Bob Burgess and his wife, Margaret; Lucy Barton and her ex-husband, William; plus Olive Kitteridge in the village of Crosby, Maine. Farr has the skill to make each personality distinct and idiosyncratic, and the taste and training to balance each one's needs and wants as they weave in and out of one another's days. Love, grief, kindness, a murder, and a bad haircut shape these lives in an undramatic way that seems artless, but definitely isn't. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2024]