elizabeth strout

A teacher lets a student know that he also wants to say “f**k you” to the world. A store owner shows great kindness to a customer. A son shares a secret with his father. Elizabeth Strout has always included what she describes as “moments of grace” in her novels, but in The Things We Never Say, set in a coastal town in Massachusetts before and after the re-election of Donald Trump , these moments of connection and empathy appear in even sharper relief. I ask Strout, speaking from her home in Brunswick, Maine, if she thinks this new novel will spark conversation in the United States . “I don’t k