An unforgettable cast of small-town characters copes with love and loss from the number one New York Times best-selling and Man Booker long-listed author of My Name Is Lucy Barton

Recalling Olive Kitteridge in its richness, structure, and complexity, Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others.

Anything Is Possible tells the story of the inhabitants of rural, dusty Amgash, Illinois, the hometown of Lucy Barton, a successful New York writer who finally returns, after 17 years of absence, to visit the siblings she left behind. Reverberating with the deep bonds of family and the hope that comes with reconciliation, Anything Is Possible again underscores Elizabeth Strout's place as one of America's most respected and cherished authors.

Listening Length

8 hours and 29 minutes
Author

Elizabeth Strout
Narrator

Kimberly Farr
Audible release date

4 May 2017
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books Ltd
ASIN

B06XT9FBKJ
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	8 hours and 29 minutes
Author	Elizabeth Strout
Narrator	Kimberly Farr
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	04 May 2017
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B06XT9FBKJ
Best Sellers Rank	15,365 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 345 in Family Life Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 597 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 1,552 in Family Life Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews

5 star		51%
4 star		26%
3 star		14%
2 star		5%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Strangely unsatisfying

Reviewed in Australia on 22 August 2021

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Although Elizabeth Strout is an excellent writer this book of interlinked chapters which are really short stories just doesn't really go anywhere.

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marilyn

Sensational

Reviewed in Australia on 4 October 2018

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Wonderful. A tonic. Exquisite writing. I admire the sheer honesty and emotional precision displayed by the author. I can only describe the experience of reading this book as a moral relief. I had thought no one cared any more for the ordinary life and the exquisite nuances of the human condition.

One person found this helpful

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elizabeth

An ok read

Reviewed in Australia on 2 November 2017

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I loved Olive Kitteridge by the same author. This had interlocking stories/ characters but I was not engaged much with them

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Possible or impossible!

Reviewed in Australia on 5 August 2017

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Interesting characters. I particularly liked the ending. The variety of characters presented have a good idea of a small town .

Very well written a good command of language. thanks for an enjoyable reading experience.

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Finn Alan Bradfield

Brilliant

Reviewed in Australia on 26 July 2018

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Spare. Quiet. Moving. Remarkable. Brilliantly written. Everyone should read this group of stories clearly written by one who sees the wonderful humanity in all.

One person found this helpful

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P. M. Paterson

Exquisite evocation of place from a master storyteller

Reviewed in Australia on 1 July 2017

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Loved the juxtaposition of sweetness and sorrow in the interlinked stories from small town Illinois. For readers of American writers of place - think Anne Tyler- Elizabeth Prout will not disappoint.

One person found this helpful

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Kat

Terrible book

Reviewed in Australia on 29 May 2017

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I found it difficult to actually understand the story line, it was a very disconnected read that lack a story line to ground and make sense of the characters.

One person found this helpful

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Anthony White

Captivating

Reviewed in Australia on 12 March 2018

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Enjoyed the family dynamics. Also how characters appeared in different contexts in life’s web. Would recommend the book to friends and family.

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M. Dowden

A Great Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 August 2018

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This is the first book I have ever read by Elizabeth Strout, but it won’t be my last, as literally apart from going to the toilet I read this straight off beginning to end. There is an active table of contents here, so you can read these tales in any order you wish, although if you read them in the order they appear here then you will notice certain progressions, and the interconnectedness between certain stories. And although you can say this is a collection of short stories, you can also say that it is a novel in the way that this is set out, which is no mean feat.

Not an actual sequel to the author’s previous novel ‘My Name is Lucy Barton’ this book does feature her and takes us to her home town of Amgash and the surrounding area (such as Carlisle) Illinois. Here we read of other members of the Barton family, including cousins, as well as other people from the area.

Filled with various themes so we can see depression, desire and loneliness, along with desperation and gossip, and so on. As incidents occur and we find out things that are going on in the present as well as in the past, so we find characters that are skilfully drawn with scenarios that we either have experience of or can empathise with. This is beautifully written, and the people really come to life, with their warts and all, giving us a deeper insight into life and what it means to be human. None of us are perfect, and this is shown here, with flaws appearing in characters, that adds to that human touch.

You do not have to have read the Lucy Barton novel to appreciate this, and due to the structure, even if you do not normally read short story books you may soon find yourself enjoying this, as the tales interconnect, and as I have already mentioned this does have a feel of a novel about it. Giving us a greater depth than the page count may indicate this really is a pure pleasure to read.

27 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer gillyflower

Not my sort of book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2018

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I do think quite highly of this author and have read and thoroughly enjoyed three of her novels. This one 'Anything is Possible' was not to my taste. I don't go for short stories and made a mistake by not reading the blurb properly, which would have told me that this is what the book comprised of. Having said that, I didn't find the individual stores particularly interesting. One can't deny the skill of Elizabeth Strout however in portraying her characters. There is a link throughout, tenuous though it might me, ie Lucy Barton. I couldn't really recommend this, but if you like short storiess and also like Elizabeth Strout, and maybe if you have read 'My Name is Lucy Barton' this would be worth a read.

12 people found this helpful

J. Ang

Love - Warts and All

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 July 2019

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Another gem from the inimitable Elizabeth Strout in the vein of her Pulitzer winner, “Olive Kitteridge”. This novel is collection of stories about a pastiche of characters from a fictional town of Amgash, Illinois. We get among these stories a view of Lucy Barton from Strout’s previous novel “I am Lucy Barton”, at first in passing from other characters’ mention of her and her childhood, and then in a chapter where she appears with her siblings. There is however, no one central focaliser, and each of this ensemble cast has chapters centred on their ordinary yet tumultuous inner lives.

Seemingly innocuous scenes unfold with a gradual shift in tone and mood, that are sometimes alarming and violent, sometimes touching and sad, but always moving, as a character learns something about himself or herself, or revisits a distant memory and wonders at how it has been distorted just so. Strout’s impeccable skill at fully investing in the moment such that the immediate surroundings acquire significance and become part of the character’s frame of reference for a feeling or some hard truth that he or she has to suddenly grapple with is in full force in these interconnected narratives. For instance, when a pliant wife confronts the awful crimes her husband commits and worse, that she has been complicit with, “the Hopper painting hung on the wall with an indifference so vast it began to feel personal, as though it had been painted for this moment.”

Oftentimes a simple truth uttered in the midst of tremendous hurt and pain, at the right place and time, offers a glimmer of hope and acceptance, such as this one: “And remorse, well, to be able to show remorse - to be able to be sorry about what we’ve done that’s hurt other people - that keeps us human.” And as much as we battle ourselves and the world at large each day on our own, and realise that “everyone... was mainly and mostly interested in themselves”, as a woman Patty listened to her friend turning a conversation back to her own to her own troubles, she reflected on the devotion of her late husband: “This was the skin that protected you from the world - this loving of another person you shared your life with.” The sadness and longing of that sentence was palpable in the context of all that Patty had loved and lost.

Strout may not offer any pithy answers but she expertly dissects the contradictions of this thing we call the human condition, exposing its bare bones for our reflection and examination, and it’s difficult to step out from this novel without a certain reverence for one’s life and its complicated relationships.

8 people found this helpful

Dunroving

Barely one star for a depressing set of short stories

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 May 2020

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I think others have made similar comments, but I got about a third of the way through before realising each chapter was a separate short story! I don't know why the description of the book was so misleading. The blurb reads as if Lucy Barton returns home, and then there will be a story about the effects on the town. However, Lucy Barton only appears in one chapter, in the middle! The chapters were beautifully written at times, and the characters were interesting, at times. But there was no tangible thread to the collection of stories, other than they lived in the same area. The stories were also very depressing, with very little to uplift you. The final chapter was just bonkers, and it's not clear to me why the book title is linked to one phrase in this final chapter.

I struggled to figure out the relationships between the different characters - often having to go back to remind myself who a person was and what their connection was. I might get the Lucy Barton novel, as I did (in general) like the writing style, and hope that a cohesive single story line will be easier to handle!

2 people found this helpful

Janie U

Profiling a community with Lucy Barton at it's core

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 March 2022

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I've read a couple of books by this author and enjoyed them so was interested to come across this one, being published just 5 years ago.
It is 254 pages with 9 chapters that are names rather than numbered.
The book is structured in the format of 9 short stories, each one focusing on one character in the community, all linked by Lucy Barton. Lucy had a difficult childhood in the town then moved away to become successful in New York. Each chapter is perfectly formed - standing alone as a story but then linking beautifully with all the other chapters to give a complete novel.
My Name is Lucy Barton is the first book in the series and this is the second (I didn't realise this until I started reading). It is not necessary to have read the previous novel before this one although it will add back story. If you haven't read Lucy Barton then it would work to read it after this one as the story will be much more complete and you will get more historical context.
Each of the chapters start with a fairly cosy setup then quickly descend into darkness, some being quite disturbing for the characters and the reader.
Cleverly, as each chapter revealing more about it's subject, the style of writing changes to match their personality.
I was surprised which people has been chosen by the author but was fascinated to hear their voices. I wanted to know their unique stories and find out more about why they see the world in the way they do.
This is such an amazing book, structurally as well as on many other levels. There is no particular plot, just a perfect observation of a group of people connected by community.

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