“Syllable for syllable, it’s stunning work — arguably better than the original.…
I have long and deeply admired all of Strout’s work, but Olive, Again transcends and triumphs. The naked pain, dignity, wit and courage these stories consistently embody fill us with a steady, wrought comfort.”
Joan Frank, “The cranky, bossy, sad, brave, beloved Olive Kitteridge is back in ‘Olive, Again’ — and better than ever,” Washington Post, October 8, 2019.A couple weeks ago, I climbed to the top of Mount David with the New Yorker Radio Hour, a place I visited almost every month when I was in school at Bates College.
It was like ancient history to be there and remember! I’d never talked about Mount David to anyone, but it was such an important part of who I became.
Kala Lea, "Elizabeth Strout’s View from the Top," The New Yorker Radio Hour, October 4, 2019.
“‘She honestly just showed up,’ Strout says. ‘I could see her in her car, nosing it into the marina.’ Olive had aged; she appeared to now be in her early 80s. ‘She was poking along with her cane. I just saw her so clearly that I thought, “OK, I guess I will have to write this down.’’””
I sat down for an interview with Mary Pols recently for the current issue of Maine Women Magazine.
Mary Pols, “Strout, Again,” Maine Women Magazine, July 31, 2019.
“I never intended to return to Olive Kitteridge. I really thought I was done with her, and she with me. But a few years ago I was in a European city, alone for a weekend, and I went to a café, and she just showed up. That’s all I can say. She showed up with a force, the way she did the very first time, and I could not ignore her.”
The current issue of The New Yorker includes an interview with me about my new book OLIVE, AGAIN and an excerpt from it, the short story “Motherless Child.”
Elizabeth Strout, “Motherless Child,” The New Yorker (August 5 & 12, 2019 Issue), July 29, 2019.Deborah Treisman, “Elizabeth Strout on Returning to Olive Kitteridge,” The New Yorker , July 29, 2019.I'm happy to let readers know that I have a new book, OLIVE, AGAIN, coming out next fall, October 15, 2019.
Here is the press release from my U.S. publisher, Random House:
Random House is thrilled to announce the return of the beloved Olive Kitteridge in Elizabeth’s Strout’s next novel, OLIVE, AGAIN, which will be published on [October 15], 2019. “It turns out – I just wasn’t done with Olive,” said Strout. “It was like she kept poking me in the ribs, so I finally said, ‘Okay, okay…”
OLIVE, AGAIN will pick up where OLIVE KITTERIDGE left off, following the next decade of Olive’s life – through a second marriage, an evolving relationship with her son, and encounters with a cast of memorable characters in the seaside town of Crosby, Maine.
The character of Olive Kitteridge has achieved an iconic place in the imaginations of millions of readers since the 2008 publication of Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, OLIVE KITTERIDGE. In 2014, it was turned into an acclaimed HBO series, which won 8 Emmys, including Best Actress to Frances McDormand for her performance in the title role.
In the citation for the Pulitzer Prize, the committee noted that the novel “packed a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed, and fascinating.”
Apparently, I was not through with Olive, nor she with me!
NOTE: This post originally gave a publication date of Sept 3. That has been updated to Oct 15.Sign up for Elizabeth’s newsletter, with exclusive content from Elizabeth to her readers.