Overview
- The Los Angeles Times reviews Elizabeth Strout’s new novel, set in coastal Massachusetts with a fresh cast of characters.
- The book follows Artie Dam, a 57-year-old high school teacher whose isolation at home and work frames a harrowing brush with danger at sea.
- The story unfolds in a post-pandemic America where a recaptured presidency heightens division and tests even new friendships shaped by political differences.
- Strout uses linked pieces, shifting viewpoints, and time jumps to probe blind spots, free will, and small moments of grace.
- The review places the book within Strout’s trademark world-building as a Pulitzer winner known for Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton while noting this novel marks a new setting and protagonist.