The Things We Never Say: A Novel

NEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLER • In this "profound, resplendent novel"* from Pulitzer Prize&winning, #1New York Timesbestselling author Elizabeth Strout, a chance incident sparks a powerful realization in a beloved teacher&s life

"Strout&s capacious empathy and rigorous attention to the nuances of human behavior and psychology are as evident as ever."-The Boston Globe

"Artie Dam is someone you may never be able to forget."-Financial Times*

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 mind: 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 Saytakes 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.

Elizabeth Strout is the author of the New York Times bestseller Olive Kitteridge, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; the national bestseller Abide with Me; and Amy and Isabelle, winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize. She has also been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize in London. She lives in Maine and New York City.