An extraordinary new novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, number one New York Times best-selling author of Olive Kitteridge and My Name is Lucy Barton.

Olive, Again follows the blunt, contradictory yet deeply loveable Olive Kitteridge as she grows older, navigating the second half of her life as she comes to terms with the changes - sometimes welcome, sometimes not - in her own existence and in those around her.

Olive adjusts to her new life with her second husband, challenges her estranged son and his family to accept him, experiences loss and loneliness, witnesses the triumphs and heartbreaks of her friends and neighbours in the small coastal town of Crosby, Maine - and, finally, opens herself to new lessons about life.

Listening Length

12 hours and 14 minutes
Author

Elizabeth Strout
Narrator

Kimberly Farr
Audible release date

31 October 2019
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Audio
ASIN

B07K6VX426
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	12 hours and 14 minutes
Author	Elizabeth Strout
Narrator	Kimberly Farr
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	31 October 2019
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07K6VX426
Best Sellers Rank	16,268 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 349 in Family Life Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 498 in Women's Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) 627 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

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2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Quiet masterpiece

Reviewed in Australia on 22 November 2019

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It’s true what they say - Elizabeth Strout is a masterly writer. Here, in a series of vignettes about various people in the town of Crosby, Maine, that almost reads like a series of short stories, we discover the ins and outs of Olive’s later life, because they all know Olive. Of course some of the vignettes are directly about Olive herself. It sometimes feels inconsequential, but in hearing about the mundane details of ordinary lives a picture is built of a whole culture and its idiosyncratic denizens. Olive is as straightforward as ever , her bluntness making us smile, but although she’s insightful (usually), about others, she’s been less insightful about herself and her somewhat strained relationships with, for example, her son. At the end, when she’s well into her eighties and typing up some memories, she thinks: “I do not have a clue who I have been. Truthfully, I do not understand a thing”. Nevertheless, she’s impacted many lives significantly and this book is a marvellous meditation on aging and the growing of wisdom. Which sounds simple but isn’t. There’s many a fine nuance to be traversed.

One person found this helpful

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Aitchempee

Dreary and depressing

Reviewed in Australia on 4 January 2020

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Loved #1Olive, and ES is an amazing writer but honestly, this book is the most depressing book I have ever read ... a load of incessant hyphens and boring narrative of she said and then he said and she said and then she said ... it was so monotonous in its sameness no matter whose story was being told, and each story increasingly so dreadfully depressing. Goodness, what an exciting life we all have to look forward to in old age.... if that is the point of it all. And the only take-away from it ; there is no point to it all. How sad.

One person found this helpful

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ECamaldulensis

Outstanding

Reviewed in Australia on 2 May 2021

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The way the stories in this are told - Olive’s is intertwined with the others from the town - is just wonderful and the style is spare, almost like Raymond Carver. The reflections on ageing and mortality are so poignant, probably the best I’ve read.

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Anne Pender

When age is an advantage

Reviewed in Australia on 4 February 2020

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Olive is such a human character and so totally lacking in any 'side'. Trying to describe this book is to have to find a way of making unattractive seeming characters pleasant - and that's tough. I do wonder if having some of the failings so openly described makes it easier to appreciate them. They come and go through Olive's life and she comments and interacts with them in her terribly down to earth, 'no frills' manner. there's no particular story to recount, no action to describe - just life to be lived.

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Stephen Clark

A whole life

Reviewed in Australia on 4 December 2019

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To have followed Olive in two books is a privilege. Cranky as she is, she is good company. I understood the way she wavers in her affections, buffeted by constantly shifting emotions and memories. An excellent thoughtful book about the surprises in life, they never stop coming.

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Susan Browne

Goodbye, Olive

Reviewed in Australia on 25 March 2020

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I feel like I've lost a friend. How can a writer inhabit the life of one woman so effectively? Such writing is genius. Every bit as brilliant as Olive Ketteridge if not better with its melancholy march toward the end of life.

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Margaret

A strange novel

Reviewed in Australia on 26 March 2020

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I found this book very odd. Very little plot and the story seemed very disjointed.
Olive is not very likeable. At times the stories were depressing.
Margaret

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Geraldine

How can you not love Olive?

Reviewed in Australia on 28 March 2021

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I love that the characters from her other novels appear here, almost like a final farewell.
And no doubt this is goodbye to all of them. It has been a joy to know them.

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Sabina

O Live Again?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 November 2019

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The chapters in this book span about ten years as the relationship between widowers Olive and Jack develops, they marry, negotiate ageing and the ups and downs of coming to terms with the memory of their previous marriage partners. And indeed there is much about the oscillation of discomfort and comfort in human relationships, not just between Jack and Olive, but many inhabitants of Crosby, Maine, Elizabeth Strout's fictional town, which feels so real. Her unflinching prose drew me from one chapter to another, despite some difficult themes of loss, prejudice, cruelty, misunderstanding. Olive is plain speaking, but has her own blind spots, though honest in hindsight when she can see her own prejudices and self-deception. I enjoyed the chapter where Olive comes across one of her old pupils, who is now the poet laureate, which has an unexpected twist. There is much humour too, in how characters disclose to others or themselves what they really think and feel. This author has an unswerving ability to show our human contradictions. There are moments of beauty, when Olive is surprised by the "February light" or the rich colours of autumn, or the sudden realisation that despite her son's bristling towards her, he must love her too. This redemptive quality in the prose is what made me look forward to my next reading, as for all the varied truths of our human existence, there is this undercurrent of a striving towards love in Olive's downfalls and picking up again.

35 people found this helpful

Titania78

An extraordinary achievement....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 November 2019

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....which is to have written a second book about Olive as absorbing as the first. We all know an Olive, and once we get beyond seventy we can see a little of her in ourselves. She observes the natural world around her and accepts it gratefully in a way she finds extremely to do with the people around her. Her judgemental observations often alienate her from her neighbours (and sadly her son) but her two marriages are surprisingly successful. Henry, and then Jack, recognise her innate goodness and sensitivity, and cope with her alarming candour and honesty. The way her character is developed makes us, the readers care for her too. This is a book that deals with ageing in a forthright yet amusing way, and its great virtue is that it is never dull.

17 people found this helpful

bookyfemale

A master class in ageing and human nature

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 February 2020

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I am not sure that Olive is a character we can love, but she certainly is one we cant look away from. In this book, the Olive Kitteridge we already know is growing old, and she gives us a master class in ageing, and another in human nature. Everything about this book is intensely and hilariously real. It is human nature, acutely observed.

As spiky and annoying as Olive can be, it was great to see her find love again. She believes she was probably not a good mother to her son Christopher, but her regrets fade when she grows old and needs him and he is there for her, attentive and loving.

I waited months for for this book to appear and I read it in two days, but it was worth the wait. It has everything we have learned to expect from Elizabeth Strout, and more.

6 people found this helpful

Susan

Very depressing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2020

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I still don’t like Olive. As a character she is unsympathetic. It is more an insight into her character and an understanding as to how she is the person she is, that is interesting. Like the previous book, I find the stories depressing and full of the disappointments of individual lives. There is little here to lift one’s spirits. Beautifully written, it is not really a pleasure to read. I would not like to know any of the characters in real life.

8 people found this helpful

TripFiction

Novel set in MAINE

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 January 2020

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The name of the fictional town of Crosby is a tribute to the author’s room mate in college, Ellen Crosby. The first “Olive” novel was simply titled “Olive Kitteridge” and is described as a ‘novel in stories‘. Olive, Again is in similar format. Olive, the eponymous lady of the title, is the leitmotif throughout the book, some chapters are dedicated to her post retirement life, sharing snippets and insights as she deals with the ageing process. Other stories are about the people in the small town and Olive will make a cameo appearance. She has some connection to all the characters featured and it is a little like picking up a magnifying glass, and with the aid of the deft hand of the author, the inner workings of the characters and lives are prised open like a nut for the reader to appreciate.

This is not a linear story per se, it is just beautiful writing and storytelling. Olive almost seems to be on the autism spectrum because at times her interactions can be quite curt, she says what she thinks without really giving thought to how her words are received. She really struggles to filter her thoughts before she voices her opinion. Yet, she can also be reflective and can try so hard. She tries to re-connect with her son, who comes to stay with her for a few days, yet she doesn’t know really how to dive in and mend the fractured relationship. When she discovers, left behind, a small garment she had knitted for one her grandchildren she feels ‘terror’. She corrects how others speak. She is just who she is, plucky and direct and that rare fictional character, yes, an older woman! Love her or hate her, she is a memorable character. There is quiet humour, too and it is at times quite moving.

What really makes this novel work is the beautiful and stylish writing. Emotions are created with select, pertinent words brought together in a creative and fluid way. The author’s prose is just wonderful.

6 people found this helpful

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