Strout, Elizabeth

"Strout's iconic heroine Lucy Barton recounts her complex, tender relationship with William, her first husband -- and longtime, on-again-off-again friend and confidante."--Provided by publisher.

A collection of thirteen linked short stories recounting the experiences of Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who witnesses the changes in her town and the world at large.

Olive Kitteridge, a retired teacher, begins navigating her next decade as she comes to terms with the changes, sometimes welcome, sometimes not, in her life.

"...Here are two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother's happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton-- returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence."--Provided by publisher.

Isabelle Goodrow, horrified and enraged when she discovers her teenage daughter Amy is involved with a math teacher at the high school, comes to realize that her outrage is mostly the result of the secret she has been keeping for most of Amy's life.

"Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn't spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy's childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy's life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, [and] her love for her two daughters"--Dust jacket.

"The time is the late 1950s; the place is the small town of West Annett, Maine. After the death of his wife, the Reverend Tyler Caskey tries to hold together what is left of himself, his family, and his town. His five-year-old daughter is deeply troubled and won't talk, and the townspeople who once turned to Tyler's ministry for comfort now threaten to turn on him in his most desperate hour."--back cover.

Catalyzed by a nephew's thoughtless prank, a pair of brothers confront painful psychological issues surrounding the freak accident that killed their father when they were boys, a loss linked to a heartbreaking deception that shaped their personal and professional lives.

Presents twenty of the best works of short fiction of the past year from a variety of acclaimed sources.