Olive Kitteridge (Abridged) Audiobook

Quotes

• “[Abide with Me and Amy and Isabelle] were good; this one is better…It illuminates both what people understand about others and what they understand about themselves…The pleasure in reading Olive Kitteridge comes from an intense identification with complication, not always admirable characters.”

  — New York Times Book Review

• “A unified cycle of finely observed tales focusing on characters inhabiting a single town…[A] brilliant evocation of emotion…A gratifying stunner…in language we understand with the heart.”

  — Boston Globe

• “You will find yourself thinking about this touching, prickly character long after you have finished.”

  — Newsweek

• “Perceptive, deeply empathetic…Olive is the axis around which these thirteen complex, relentlessly human narratives spin themselves into Elizabeth Strout’s unforgettable novel in stories.”

  — O, The Oprah Magazine

• “A thoughtful, compelling collection.”

  — Wall Street Journal

• “Funny, wicked and remorseful, Mrs. Kitteridge is a compelling life force, a red-blooded original. When she’s not onstage, we look forward to her return.”

  — San Francisco Chronicle

• “Olive Kitteridge still lingers in memory like a treasured photograph.”

  — Seattle Post-Intelligencer

• “[Strout] woos us with her sweeping descriptions of lush Main landscapes…[Her] true gift, though is describing life’s finer details; the normal, everyday things that might otherwise be overlooked…Strout’s style is as clean and polished as the inside of an oyster shell; flip that shell over, though, and it’s layered and gritty.”

  — Oregonian

• “Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force…[She] makes us experience not only the terrors of change but also the terrifying hope that change can bring: she plunges us into these churning waters and we come up gasping for air.”

  — New Yorker

• “Strout is a good writer, able to paint compelling pictures with a few deft brush strokes…Her collection of…characters will stay with you well after.”

  — Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star

• “One of the year’s best…A piece of multi-textured music—[and] a great piece of writing about life in small town America…A fascinating collection…Strout’s writing here is deep and masterful.”

  — Buffalo News

• “Love and acceptance are the underlying themes Strout carefully buries between the lines of unhappiness throughout the novel, making Olive Kitteridge and her family, friends, and foes tangible, set in a story just as real.”

  — Rocky Mountain News

• “Strout has a wonderful ability to turn a phrase…[Olive Kitteridge] hold[s] what life puts in: experience, joy, grief, and the sometimes-painful journey to love.”

  — Charlotte Observer

• “Masterfully wrought collection.”

  — Vanity Fair

• “Fiction lovers, remember this name: Olive Kitteridge…You’ll never forget her…[Elizabeth Strout] constructs her stories with rich irony and moments of genuine surprise and intense emotion…Glorious, powerful stuff.”

  — USA Today

• “Rarely does a story collection pack such a gutsy emotional punch.”

  — Entertainment Weekly

• “Strout’s sensitive insights and luminous prose affirm life’s pleasures…A perfectly balanced portrait of the human condition, encompassing plenty of anger, cruelty, and loss without ever losing sight of the equally powerful presences of tenderness, shared pursuits, and lifelong loyalty.”

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• “A heart-wrenching, penetrating portrait of ordinary coastal Mainers living lives of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection…[This] collection is easy to read and impossible to forget.”

  — Publishers Weekly (starred review)