The Things We Never Say

by Elizabeth Strout

Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Strout’s new novel tells the story of a chance incident that sparks a powerful realization in a beloved teacher’s life—a poignant meditation on loneliness, friendship, parenthood, and the importance of truth in a capsizing world.

Artie Dam is living a double life. He spends his days teaching history to eleventh graders, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbors, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad—at himself and the people around him—and turns a question over and over in his How is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?

And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear—and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.

Elizabeth Strout, as we have come to expect, delivers a moving exploration of the human condition—one that brims with compassion for each and every one of her indelible characters. With exquisite prose and profound insight, The Things We Never Say takes one man’s fears and loneliness and makes them universal. And in the same breath, captures the abiding love that sustains and holds us all.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Book Club, Adult, Adult Fiction, Novels

Kindle Edition

Expected publication May 5, 2026

About the author

Elizabeth Strout is the author of several novels, including: Abide with Me, a national bestseller and BookSense pick, and Amy and Isabelle, which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in England. In 2009 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her book Olive Kitteridge. Her short stories have been published in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker. She teaches at the Master of Fine Arts program at Queens University of Charlotte.

Reviews

[Susan's Reviews]

I was so excited to see this new title on NetGalley! I love Elizabeth Strout! I'd read her grocery list if they published it, honest! Fingers crossed that I can get an ARC of The Things We Never Say!!!

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It will always be a source of frustration for me that I can love Elizabeth Strout's writing so much but spectacularly fail to explain why.

[Carol Scheherazade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved Elizabeth Strout’s writing for the way she captures the human condition with such clarity and compassion. Her books are consistently thought-provoking and remarkably perceptive about what it means to be human. This one was especially beautiful. It felt as though she had been quietly observing all of us over the past several years, taking notes and then shaping those insights into the story. It is timely, deeply emotional, and profoundly relatable. It is obvious she is the master of the human condition, and I look forward to many more books by this author.

[Jaclyn]

I have wanted Strout to cover new terrain and characters for a while now and here she gives us the lovely Artie Dam and a huge array of new people to know and love. It has a melancholic tone with the book placing the current president’s election victory squarely in its centre. As with Lucy and Olive, I love Artie. Simply put, this book is stunning and I adored my time within its pages.

[Chris Chanona · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I love Elizabeth Strout’s writing. Once again I became totally involved with the lives of her characters, especially iof the main character Artie Dam. This time, the lives of her characters are set against the looming threat of the presidential election which has actually now happened although Trump is not actually mentioned by name. There is a lot of fear at the heart of this novel. Anxieties. But don’t let this put you off for, as always, her writing is spot on, every word counts. I whizzed through this novel and was so disappointed when it came to the finish. I could’ve carried on reading of her world.

Another triumph for Elizabeth Strout. I recommend this very, very highly. I received an ARC from the publishers and NetGalley.. this did not sway my opinion as I have read everything that this author has written and really enjoyed every novel.

[Kristine]

I just heard this book is coming out next year, May 2026. I have been meaning to read Elizabeth Strout’s books for a long time. Maybe, start with this One. Definitely, interested.

[Kimberlin Whitsitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I’m not going to be able to stop talking about this book!

I loved the message and the story and the characters! We don’t ever truly know the full extent of people’s lives and stories and why they are the way that they are. Our perception is only what they want us to see. I love the people that Artie found comfort in. Anne, his son Rob, his girlfriend and his best friend Ken. 🥹 Artie’s wife really made me mad and her character drove me nuts but I think she drove Artie nuts too. 😂

I love Artie and his students that he impacted so much! This was full of so much real life and there were times I was in tears. I can’t wait until this book comes out so I can yap about it more!

[Ayelet · Rating 5 out of 5]

So lovely and wonderful. Love Strout’s writing and loved loved Artie!!!

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely exquisite. Lucy Barton will always hold my heart...but this could be Strout's best book yet. I haven't stopped thinking about it for days.

[Dave Schaafsma]

Got my hands on a preview copy from Net Galley..

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

It could only be 5 stars. Strout writes so simply but gives so much depth and deep love to her characters, I could read her forever.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"But mostly we travel through life unsighted, grasping only the smallest details of another's selves, including our own. Thinking all the while that we can see." Artie Dam, the center of Strout's newest novel, is a high school teacher, a husband, a father, a sailor. In late middle age, Artie grapples with the fact that he doesn't really know or understand many of the people closest to him, including his wife and son. Profound secrets and hidden feelings define him, and his relationships, and are the preoccupation of his days. Strout's beautiful, powerful prose illuminates the loneliness of the human condition, and the deep connections that define us.

[Liz Hein · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Elizabeth Strout is back on May 5th with her first standalone novel In over a decade with THE THINGS WE NEVER SAY, a title I have had to remind myself what it was called many times. Our main character is Artie Dam: a son, a husband, a father, and a high school social studies teacher. We get to know him in each of these roles, which brings me back to our title. Strout is examining the rationale behind the lies we tell ourselves and the lies we tell others through each part of the self.

Strout is a known for her ability to capture human nature astutely through a single character à la Olive and Lucy. I think the same is largely true for Artie, here, though with such less time with him, we dip a bit into telling not showing. Artie’s struggles with loneliness, the idea of free will, and the current state of our country are smacked directly on top of our heads.

I loved the themes around the layers of self and the individual’s nature to think one’s world and reality are universal. I just wish the story here matched that layering. I couldn’t put this down, but also found myself eye rolling at an oh captain my captain teacher moment and cringing at Artie’s inability to look inwards on the worldly issues he brings up like he’s able to about his personal story. Perhaps that is the point Strout is trying to make. Yes, there’s a lot of universality captured, but there’s also a lot left out. Nonetheless, Strout has a lot to say about our current world, you won’t have to pay attention to catch that. But do pay attention for an Olive reference. Oh, well, I’m glad I read it, will be shocked if this isn’t a celebrity book club pick.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

As soon as I started I couldn’t put it down. I don’t know any of the characters, unlike her other books and yet they are so familiar. I know no other author who writes like this and pulls me in so quickly. I wanted to inhale the book.

The book starts with Artie Damm a teacher in America. I did consider whether I wanted to read a book set in America just before the recent election but I’ve read all her other books so trusted her. I think the book is about how even when we are close to people we can struggle to actually know what is happening for them in their lives and even when we do know we can struggle to communicate with them. That keeping details of our lives from others can build a gap that is very difficult to over come.

As with all her books there are conversations about politics which I think is important and even though I think she wrote this close to the current situation I don’t think even she could imagine where America is right now.
There is a few mentions of suicide which could be triggering for some along with death. I don’t think anyone reads an Elizabeth Strout book expecting an easy ride and yet I think I always feel safe and held by her writing, there is such kindness and compassion that I feel I can manage the places she goes to. I deal with a lot of distress in my job and tend to like escapism in my fiction but somehow her writing is different and whilst emotionally challenging it feels not draining but cathartic.

The parts of the book where Artie goes into the shop, his relationships with his son and students were especially moving. I found his wife terrified me and really saddened me.

I was always a prolific reader but whilst I was ill I got stuck reading Bridgerton, nothing wrong with that but I’d read them all over and over again and just couldn’t break into a new author. A colleague, who was a family therapist suggested Elizabeth Strout and I started with Olive Kitterage and was just hooked. I went from fantasy and historical romance to, for me, pretty gritty writing with stories that included sad details of people’s relationships and lives. Yet it absolutely sparked my love of reading again. I’d struggled with her last book and hadn’t read it a second time but I wonder if it’s because I struggle so much with saying good bye and it was billed as the end of those character’s arcs.

I read this book so quickly, initially just wanting to read a few pages but not being able to put it down. Staying up until late at night and finding the ending so moving and so perplexing. I will reread and I know I will see other things, think other things and feel other things. Right as I finish it I have a lump in my throat and wish I was still within the book. As will all of her books the characters feel so real, written with such understanding and compassion. It’s hard to read at this point in America’s history and I guess that’s the point.

I hope that the author continues to write and I can continue to read because I truly think she is the best author I have ever read.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this book for my consideration, this is all my own rambling, honest and personal opinion. I think out of all the ARCs I have ever had this is the one that made me the most excited and I’m expecting to try really hard to buy a signed hardback, hopefully in my local book shop because I have all her other books.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful father/son story with perfectly written passages to highlight and remember. Elizabeth Strout has a gift for looking deep into the soul of one character and making us all care about him or her so much. I didn't need the epilogue (which dropped my rating); the book was perfect without it.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was absolutely fantastic. Starting with the Carl Jung quote on the first Padgett. It is so relatable , so really, but done in her magically writing style. Booker award?

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly sad

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout is a beautiful, deeply humane novel and a powerful exploration of what makes us human. I adored the characters of Artie and his son Rob, and the way Strout so gently examines kindness, empathy, friendship, fear, anxiety, grief, and the secrets we carry.

She captures how we don’t always present our true selves to the world and how everyone is struggling with something beneath the surface. In my opinion, this book is Strout putting into words how so many people are feeling today, living in a polarised and fractured society.

Her writing is lyrical, insightful, and emotionally breathtaking. It made me sigh out loud; sometimes with relief, sometimes with surprise, devastation, sadness, or longing.  Elizabeth Strout is my favourite author, and once again, I was completely absorbed, consistently engaged, and reluctant for the book to end. I was fortunate to read a free advance copy from the publisher and NetGalley, and this is my honest review.

Finishing it left me feeling grateful I’d read it, but also quietly bereft; that familiar ache that comes at the end of a truly special book.

[Sara]

Many life we live in same one
chang the page by our hand
power take over our history line
work to peace
to deapth of creat
to mark our days by love
lonily hold our words
hunt our future and past
our war make it daily fight
win over many difficult
gd exprince nt make it true
life rule our time
depth make us more lonily without love
justic of share word
love

[Sophie Gledstone · Rating 2 out of 5]

???? This was the most relentlessly depressing book with absolutely no resolution for any of the characters and so many loose ends. Hello??? Where’s the rest of it??????

[Lachlan Finlayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed all the novels from this author, some more than others. This may not be my favourite, but I am sure anyone who has enjoyed Ms Strout’s other books will enjoy this one.
The location is familiar, New England, a coastal town. The characters are familiar types from her previous books but are not people she has written about before. Although tantalising there is an oblique reference to someone who may be an old favourite, Olive Kitteridge.
The time period is post-pandemic, prior to the 2024 US Presidential Election. Conflicts are ongoing in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The country while described as ‘divided’ it is also noted that:

“…issues weigh on some but not all…”

This is probably the most political of all the books written by Ms Strout. Although some descriptions seem to be ambiguous or at least indirect, muted commentary. Although this may be intentional some readers may still feel slightly alienated or excluded. I would urge all readers not to be discouraged by the thread of politics that runs through this book, both as background and foreground events. it is a book largely about people, often older people, and how they cope and react to their changing world.
Few authors write such wonderful prose in so few words as Ms Strout. This relatively short book, of some 200 pages, should be read slowly, the dialogue savoured, emotions and physical descriptions enjoyed.
“He loved her, but he was not remotely in love with her.
It was that he could be himself with her; he realized this only later.”

The main plot surrounds Artie Dam, the protagonist of this book who is a well respected and popular High School teacher, close to retirement age. He is happily married, enjoys the friendship of his students, their parents and many others in this small-town community. His adult son lives nearby and while the relationship is loving, it has become less close over time. There are no Grandchildren.

Ms Strout build a landscape of almost humdrum normality, then gradually introduces darker events from the past, both distant and more recent. Consequences and complications reverberate over time. Artie begins to feel ‘lost, isolated, an emptiness’. He considered suicide. Much of the book is written from his point of view, and the reader may suspect the onset of a mental illness or depression.

Past events start to unsettle Artie and his family. Accidents and relationships cause expected and unexpected consequences. Ms Strout is at her best depicting ordinary people with ordinary lives, how they respond and cope with the darker realities of life, privately and publicly. Strout explores human frailty with sensitivity, nuance and understanding. I love this aspect of her writing. She also embraces the more positive aspects of her people and their relationships. Tolerance, understanding, friendship and love. And how these develop and may change over time. The past constantly merges with the present. Strout reveals so much i so few words.

“…he thought of his mother every day. He though of his father as well, though not as often”

Class is another aspect explored in this book; American Class, more related to money than upbringing. This is introduced gradually, informing and growing more central to the plot, echoing across generations.

Once the scene is set, events develops slowly then more rapidly for Artie. His life is changed, amongst unexpected twists and turns, some which seem a little forced but are forgivable in order to progress the narrative. Characters are richly portrayed, particularly the older ones; with wisdom and maturity but also hopes and fears. Artie’s students are portrayed as diverse, struggling with their times and increasing uncertainty in their futures.. These are good kids, and although Artie may downplay or be unaware of his role, under his influence, life-long characteristics are forming in many of his pupils.

Sightly older adult characters, are sometimes less developed, not exactly caricatures, but slightly shallow and at times unattractive. Perhaps an example of ambiguity ? During one conversation, Artie’s son corrects his father who inadvertently referred to a ‘girl’.

“A woman. They’re called women these days Dad”

Is the author portraying this adult son as patronising and annoying. (If so she succeeds!). Or is she informing her readers on the ‘correct’ use of language ? Or both ? Interestingly, a little later in the book, the very same faux-pas is repeated by Artie with the same pedantic correction demanded.

This character, although a much-loved son, comes across as a bit of a doofus later in the book, as paranoia and a sense of doom overwhelms his worldview and he relocates to Europe.

He warns his parents:

“I’m working for the European Union. It’s serious stuff I’m doing. That’s why I want you to use burner phones and encrypted email…I’ve already said too much”.

The reader may take this is different ways. An understandable response to political events ? A case of believing extremist conspiracy theories and disappearing down a ‘Rabbit Hole’ ? An hilarious view of the EU ? An example of a disillusioned or deluded young man out to save the United States, albeit from the safe distance of Europe ?

Strout presents people and events from multiple perspectives. We know of the protagonist Artie from his own thoughts but also from those in his family, friends and community. We get a deeper sense of this fine man. Ms Strout suggests:

“All of us live with a huge blind spot before our eyes, meaning that no matter what we think we know we can never fully understand how we appear to others. This was true for Artie Dam.”

Post-election as the book heads towards a conclusion, the following observation is presented:

“The election came and went. Half the country was stunned, the other half jubilant”

The reader may wonder if this is intended as a correct statement. Or more a reflection of how the election result is perceived amongst certain characters in the book. Or perhaps it is a wider assessment, alluding to, and slightly exaggerating the sense of disunity in the country. Strout gives the reader plenty to ponder !

Artie reflects, with thoughts on a close friend. that might be considered optimistic or ominous:

“…it came to him that it did not (really) matter to him that Ken supported the next president (except that it did). Mostly Artie was surprised.”

I particularly enjoyed the Epilogue. Ms Strout writes about the lives the of several of the main characters, some years in the future. Also she notes changes in the character of this small community and how some of the people, particularly the younger ones, evolve and respond. A sense of uncertainty remains; maybe some muted optimism. This is a fine book and Ms Strout’s readers will enjoy it. It may provoke debate amongst some but I also think it will provide a better understanding of people and hopefully some unity in a country divided. A reader may wonder if Ms Strout will continues her habit of revisiting characters and places in subsequent books. I hope so. There are one or two characters in ‘The Things We Never Say’ that I would like to know better.

I wish Ms Strout and her publishers great success with this fine new book.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

That Mr. Dam had turned and asked her how she was that day as she moved down the hallway was—Rhonda Lazarre would always believe this—when she decided she would become a minister, even if she had not fully understood it at that moment. But as these things happen, she carried with her that memory and connected it to the future, and it was a good future for her; she understood more and more as she got older that she had helped people, people like she had been, awkward, scared, lonely, and people also like the other girls in her class had been, popular and pretty and suffering—as she found out through her career—from terrible pains and fears of their own. God bless Mr. Dam. So blind we humans are—so blind. To each other and to ourselves, moving through life as though through shadows, putting out a hand in the dark and thinking we have touched someone. And maybe we have, as Artie did with Rhonda Lazarre that day. But mostly we travel through life unsighted, grasping only the smallest details of one another’s selves, including our own. Thinking all the while that we can see.

 
Pulitzer Prize winner, international bestseller Elizabeth Strout is known and loved particularly for her Oliver Kitteridge and Lucy Barton series of books – which converged (along not just with her other beloved character Bob Burgess, but actually characters from all her books in her previous two novels – the Covid-set Booker shortlisted “Lucy By The Sea” (2022) (which also dealt with the first Trump presidency) and her Women’s Prize shortlisted “Tell Me Everything” (2024).
 
She said at the time that it was to be her last novel with that series of characters and indeed this, due to published later in 2026, not just has a new central and I suspect one-off character but is set, as a delightful easter egg makes clear, in a world where Strout herself is an author and her previous characters fictional.
 
And that in itself is telling as this is perhaps her most real world-centred and political novel, while retaining the charm and empathy of the novels that have won her so many fans.
 
The novel’s main protagonist is Artie Dam, a veteran Massachusetts based 11th grade high school history teacher (affectionately known as Damn-dam by his pupils) and one time school soccer coach whose two key techniques are asking the students to write about anything the day they start class and then later to learn about the Civil War by taking on the role of a real historical American Civil War solider or nurse.
 
Early on though we already together with Artie get the sense that things have changed – the pandemic (and I would assume lockdown) has made them anxious and taciturn; later US politics and divisions start to enter his classroom not least when some parents start to complain that the pupils are not allowed to be confederate soldiers.  Artie particularly interacts with two of his pupils – the “unfortunate looking” bullying victim Rhona who develops a crush on Artie for his care for her, and one of her persecutors Danny who Artie initially confronts but then also tries to encourage as a chance encounter with Danny’s father explains much of Danny’s torment.
 
Artie lives with his wife of 30+ years Evie who was from a much richer background than him (Artie’s father a supervisor/janitor, his mother suffering with mental illness, his deceased sister with nerves before her death in childbirth), the two living in her large family home on an ocean private road from where Artie indulges in his gentle passion of sailing.
 
And here too we sense everything has changed in an unsettling way also – Evie and he increasingly seem to talk past each other.  Artie is sad about the departure of a long term friend Flossie (with who he had a jovial relationship) after the death of her husband – to go and live closer to her daughter with who she has an unsettled relationship.  Artie hated Flossie’s retired math professor husband Reginald; whereas Evie struggled with the “too much” Flossie but seemed to respect Reginald.  Meanwhile Artie and Evie’s son Rob (with who Artie seems to have drifted apart since a tragic accident years before when Rob lost control of his car and killed his girlfriend in not entirely explained circumstances) visits unexpectedly and announces he is breaking off with his concert pianist wife – although his new girlfriend who initially his parents find a better match – seems to have kleptomaniac tendencies. 
 
And Artie too has a secret – he is feeling strangely suicidal.
 
All of this is told with Artie, as I said, as main character but very much in the voice of a deliberately  omniscient narrator – privy to (and sharing with us) the private thoughts and secrets of each of the characters, as well as their feelings for and reactions to each other, and in many cases briefly explaining incidents or fates that will occur to them in the years to come.
 
Because the very explicit conceit of the novel – as captured in its title – is the way in which we know so little about each others deepest feelings, motivations and secrets and also how little we actually share about those with others.

And of course cleverly it is a deliberate contrary to the title of her last book bringing together all her characters - as Lucy and Olive swap stories about the lives of others in Tell Me Everything.
 
And as the novel progresses – firstly a sailing accident causes Artie to re-examine his plans and then a shock revelation (if I can be permitted a pun) unmoors him altogether.
 
If there is a second lesson of this often deeply moving novel it is the importance of small acts of kindness and their long lasting it often entirely invisible to the giver, impact on the lives of the recipients.
 
But if there is a second aspect to the novel it’s the creeping impact of the dysfunctional US political system and in the novels last pages it takes a mildly future-dystopian turn.
 
Overall I think this might be Strout’s finest novel to date. Perhaps I think too conventional for this year’s Booker panel but a second Pulitzer or first National Book Award (or 2027 Women’s Prize) is a possibility.
 
Highly recommended.
 
My thanks to Viking, Penguin General UK for an ARC via NetGalley

[Mana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Strout has a way of making regular existence feel almost divine while also being unpleasant. Here, she gives us Artie Dam, a high school history teacher who’s somehow managed to blend into the background of his own life. He sails around Massachusetts Bay, shows up at the usual holiday parties with his wife of thirty years, and goes through the motions. But deep down, he can’t shake the sense that most of what passes for connection is just people politely guessing at each other. Then a long-buried secret pops up, and Artie finally sees it: he’s not just a bystander to everyone else’s silence. He’s been building his own walls for years.

Artie’s changes sneak up on you, which is classic Strout. There’s no dramatic breakdown, no big Hollywood moment. Instead, it’s this slow, awkward process, like he’s peeling off a skin that never really fit. Watch him with his students, and you’ll notice he’s warmer with them than he is honest with himself. The people around him, his wife, his neighbors, they aren’t painted as villains. Strout sketches them with this sharp, kind eye. They’re just folks who’ve agreed to keep things simple for decades, even if that means keeping some doors locked.

What really stands out is how Strout zeroes in on the gap between what we say and what we actually mean. It hits especially hard now, when everyone’s sharing everything online but still dodging the messy truths underneath it all. She gets that tired feeling you get from keeping up a front. The story isn’t just about grief; it’s about how it can lurk in a room for years, ignored but heavy as ever. The book keeps circling back to this idea: the real mysteries aren’t in history books. They’re sitting across the table from you, quietly waiting to be noticed.

Strout's style is sleek and rhythmic, eliminating the superfluous embellishments that sometimes clog literary fiction. The rhythm of her sentences matches the way your mind works when you’re trying not to think about something painful. The tone stays calm and clear-eyed. Some people might wish the story moved faster, but honestly, the slow pace is what makes Artie’s realization feel so heavy. There’s no neat ending here, either. The book leaves you with the kind of messy understanding that real life hands out; nothing tied up, nothing easy.

Strout captures the unique loneliness that comes with being known but not truly seen in Artie. The story sticks with you. It made me look at my own long-standing relationships and wonder what is being left unsaid for the sake of peace. The book is a reminder that secrets are heavy, even when they are kept with good intentions. You might find yourself wanting to have a tough conversation with someone you love after finishing the final page.

[Bonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll admit it: I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to leave Olive Kitteridge behind. There’s something about Olive, her sharp edges, her loneliness, her unexpected tenderness, that lingers long after the last page. So when I opened The Things We Never Say, I did so with a tiny bit of reluctance, unsure if I was ready to trade her in for Strout's newest character.

But Elizabeth Strout knows exactly what she’s doing.

Artie Dam is, in many ways, the opposite of Olive, gentler, quieter, more inwardly unsettled, but he is every bit as real. He’s a good man, simply trying to live in a world that often feels confusing and off-kilter. Strout captures his inner life with such precision that his questions, about marriage, about how little we truly know even the people we love, and about truth and the things we never say are ones that felt much like questions I've asked myself.

And that’s the magic here: nothing “big” needs to happen for everything to feel enormous. A single revelation ripples outward, forcing Artie (and the reader) to reconsider what a life is made of, what we say, what we don’t, and what it costs to keep certain truths buried.

What sets Strout apart, too, is her ability to write about the current political and cultural climate with honesty and restraint. She doesn’t grandstand or simplify; instead, she lets it seep naturally into her characters’ lives, the way it does in ours, through unease, conversation, silence, sometimes quiet division, and being appalled and horrified daily. It’s one of the few portrayals in fiction that has actually felt true. As always, her prose is deceptively simple, clean, precise, and deeply compassionate. She sees her characters clearly, flaws and all, and loves them anyway. And because she does, we do, too.

There’s a passing reference to Olive Kitteridge that made me inordinately happy, one of those small, perfect moments that reminds you all of Strout’s characters exist in the same emotional universe. It felt like running into an old friend when you least expect it.

By the end, I wasn’t missing Olive anymore (well, not quite as much). Artie Dam had taken his place beside her as another beautifully drawn, fully human character trying to make sense of things that don’t always make sense.

Five stars for a novel that feels both intimate and expansive, and for a writer who continues to illuminate the quiet, complicated truths of being alive.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Random House for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on May 5, 2026.

[Mark Porton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artie Dam is a character I won’t forget in a hurry. A teacher in a Massachusetts high school, Artie is only a few years from retirement. A kinder, more compassionate man you will not find anywhere.

He ruminates often about such profound questions like “What is free will?,” he wonders about his friends, what they discuss and importantly, what they don’t.

Artie really does care about his students, he has this wonderful knack and ability to get through to this tricky cohort of troublemakers. I love him.

Strout, nails this male character beautifully. As a man of the same vintage as Artie, I can vouch for that. He loves his free time, his hobby (sailing), his family – son and wife, friends, with all his heart. Love comes easy to this man.

But Artie is a bit sad, he's also lonely. Again, Strout knows this – knows how to explain it, from a male perspective. There are things in his life, and the lives of those dearest to him that are often embroiled in things that aren’t said. It’s a charade at times. Living a lie.

This story happens under the dark, pernicious cloud of the election win of the current POTUS. The uncertainty and fear this brought the people, or many or most of the US’s populace.

There was one moment in this book where I choked, teared up. An Angry, often disruptive lad in Artie's class, it was revealed, really understood Shakespeare. Artie learned this from one of the other teachers – Artie kept this young lad back after school, this rough boy, this angry young man – and Artie asked him, “tell me about Shakespeare.” And when the boy started......that’s when I cried. I didn’t bawl like a baby, but my throat performed those involuntary spasms, air was expelled, I grunted spontaneously. This scene – I found to be incredibly emotional, profoundly so.

See Strout got this reader to the stage of knowing the boy, even caring about this young pain in the arse – so when the lad talked about Othello and Hamlet and the genius of Shakespeare it made my heart melt. Now that is what this author does, Strout has always done this - all day, everyday day.

This book encapsulates a small snapshot of a very ordinary life. Typical Strout fare if you like. She does this in such an intimate way, such an uncomplicated way, suddenly the reader feels part of the story.

I miss Artie already.

5 Stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and Ms Strout for providing me with an advance cope in exchange for my review.

[Elizabeth Foss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say is not a novel you read for escape. There is nothing light or cheerful about it. In fact, while I was reading, I kept noticing how uncomfortable it made me. At several points, I thought I might have to force myself to finish it.

Instead, I read the entire book in a single day.

This is the kind of story that gets under your skin. Even when the reading experience feels unsettling, you find yourself unable to look away. And despite the discomfort, I truly cared about the characters.

At first, I thought of this as a “midlife novel,” but that isn’t quite right. Artie Dam, the story’s central figure, is closer to the end of his life than the middle. He is a longtime high school history teacher who appears to have built a solid, ordinary life: a decades-long marriage, neighborhood gatherings, and quiet weekends sailing in Massachusetts Bay. Yet internally, he feels profoundly alone, haunted by the sense that we move through life knowing very little about the people closest to us.

When Artie discovers a secret that reframes much of his life, the novel becomes an exploration of what it means to reckon honestly with relationships, truth, and the fragile narratives we build about ourselves.

Strout’s writing reminded me of Fredrik Backman. Then, when a man in his late fifties appears contemplating suicide, I briefly wondered if we were heading toward something like A Man Called Ove. But this novel is not that story. It lacks the overt hopefulness and redemptive arc that characterize Backman’s work.

Instead, The Things We Never Say is raw, unsettling, and deeply contemplative. It asks difficult questions about loneliness, about truth, and about the ways we fail to see one another clearly.

Strout also places the story firmly in the present moment. Set in 2024, the novel engages contemporary political tensions directly. Some conservative readers may be offended and uncomfortable. Interestingly, however, the only character explicitly identified as a conservative is also the one Artie calls his best friend.

In the end, this is not a comforting book—but it is a memorable one. It lingers. It provokes reflection. And even when it unsettles, it reveals Strout’s unmistakable gift for exploring the quiet complexities of ordinary lives. She gets inside people's minds and says the quiet things out loud.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of the book.

[Simon S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artie Dam is a beloved middle-aged teacher in a small town on Massachusetts Bay. Fully engaged with his students, he’s spent decades encouraging their curiosity, self-confidence and social conscience.

Political changes in America are having a pernicious effect, making him unsure of himself, his relevance, and even his character. Looking back on his own choices, and those of the people around him, in the face of a political malevolence that has beguiled so many of his compatriots, he wonders: “Is there such a thing as free will?”

When a close friend moves away, Artie realises that despite his ties to his wife and son, he is lonely, and has drifted so far from true human connection that little remains for him to live for.

This is the most political book of Strout’s that I have read — Trump, Ukraine, and Gaza all feature, and her characters’ reactions (or lack thereof) reveal so much about the individuals and the currents of their society. A soccer-pitch disagreement escalates into race hatred. Artie forms a close bond with a man whose political views oppose his own, yet their friendship persists because they do not speak of it. These are The Things We Never Say — truths suppressed because they are socially incorrect, or because we fear losing a friend, a job, or a partner.

Strout’s “Shaker” style, as ever, delivers an utterly absorbing world of troubled minds and rich relationships, with meaning carried as plainly as her language, every sentence tuned to a beautiful and captivating utility. No veneer — just natural colour, grain, and depth.

In the later stages of his life Artie becomes more conscious in his decisions about what — and what not — to say, yet he is never able to see himself as the remarkable man others believe him to be.
That Strout can explore and celebrate humanity so warmly, without descending into sentimental banality is a quiet superpower.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel is a superb evocation of a man who comes face to face with his feelings of loneliness. He is a successful teacher, married to a woman he loves and father to a son whom he thinks the world of. He lives in a beautiful house by the sea, has no economic worries and enjoys his passion for sailing in his free time. So why does he feel so isolated?

Over the course of the novel, Artie does some very uncharacteristic things and he learns a secret that he doesn’t know what to do with for a long time. Even though he’s nearing official retirement age, he realises he’s only just understanding that, ‘…people had to take and give to one another whatever they could. If it was not enough … Well, then it meant one just had to be a grownup.’ Artie learns that saying nothing is sometimes better than confrontation.

Whilst this is undoubtedly a novel about a good man, throughout there pervades an authorial melancholy which cannot be ignored. Strout writes, ‘So blind we humans are – so blind. To each other and to ourselves, moving through life as though through shadows, putting out a hand in the dark and thinking we have touched someone. And maybe we have … But mostly we travel through life unsighted, grasping only the smallest details of one another’s selves. Including our own. Thinking all the while we can see.’

Strout also weaves the USA’s current political situation into her narrative, highlighting the chaos caused, the cruelties enacted and the selfishness encouraged. And yet, despite all of this, the novel ends with suggestions that the good will fight on and that people do care about each other. ‘The Things We Never Say’ will not be to everyone’s taste but in addressing what we don’t say and why we don’t say it, the author conveys a profound understanding of what it is to be human. Beautifully written, wise, memorable.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK Viking for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review

[Hope Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well… this one quietly destroyed me.

Elizabeth Strout has a talent for taking very ordinary lives and making them feel uncomfortably real, and this book is no exception. It follows Artie, a high school teacher dealing with a level of loneliness he can’t quite explain, which already felt a little too on the nose. Apparently even fictional teachers don’t get a break.

As a teacher, this hit harder than I expected. There’s something about watching someone who is doing all the “right” things still feel like they’re barely holding it together that feels extremely accurate. Not comforting, exactly, but accurate.

This is not an easy read. It’s slow, introspective, and pretty consistently depressing. Strout leans all the way into loneliness, strained relationships, regret, and the kind of thoughts people absolutely do not say out loud. There are heavy topics throughout, and none of them are wrapped up neatly or softened.

And yet… it works.

Her writing is so precise it almost feels invasive, like she somehow got access to everyone’s internal monologue and just decided to share it. Every character feels real in that slightly messy, frustrating, very human way. No one is perfect, no one is especially dramatic, and that somehow makes everything hit harder.

There’s also something about this book that feels very “right now.” The emotional distance, the quiet anxiety, the sense that people are just getting through the day while carrying way more than they admit. If you work in education, it might feel especially familiar in a way that is not exactly relaxing.
It’s definitely not plot-driven, and it’s not what I would call uplifting. But it is honest in a way that feels rare.

So yes, it’s a bit of a downer. But it’s also kind of brilliant. One of those books that’s hard to read, harder to shake, and somehow still worth every page.

[Penelope · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual with Elizabeth Strout books, this one is set in New England and is fluently written with deep understanding of our human condition. What indeed are the things to which we dare not give voice, the things we never say? By entering into the stream of consciousness of her characters, Strout is able to show us, without specifically saying, how we can think things which we would never dare admit to others. Will Artie commit suicide? Will he reveal what he knows about their son to his wife? And what of the other characters - do they too have hidden and unconfessed things they think about, dream about or indeed fearfully worry and have nightmares about?

There is a theme of fear running as an undercurrent - fear of life, of circumstances, of what people might do or think or say; and fear at the impending Presidential Election, which has now happened of course, although President Trump isn't mentioned by name. Fear manifests itself in different ways for each of us and this is certainly true for the characters in this book. It is never overstated; but it is there as it is for so many people throughout life. But Strout handles this with ease, with a lightness of touch which doesn't undermine the seriousness of each character's situation. It is a deft handling of what could have been a heavy subject.

I was soon drawn into this book and to the story of teacher Artie Dam, and his family, students and acquaintances. For me it is one of the best of Strout's novels - and I have read them all in order!

With thanks for the copy I received as an ARC from the publishers and NetGalley.. This hasn't swayed my opinion; as I have mentioned, I 've read all of Strout's books, and enjoyed them.