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The Things We Never Say
  • Published: 7 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405989091
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 208

The Things We Never Say

Formats & editions
Hardback
5 May 2026
EBook
7 May 2026
Audiobook
7 May 2026
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Internationally bestselling and prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout’s new novel tells the story of a chance incident in a man's life — a poignant meditation on loneliness, friendship, and free will in a capsizing world.

Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, 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 neighbours, 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.

With exquisite prose and profound insight, Elizabeth Strout captures the way grief reverberates through decades, the comfort found in deep friendships and the freedom that comes when we break free of our secrets. The Things We Never Say is a stunning new novel from one of our most acclaimed observers of the human heart.
  • Published: 7 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405989091
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 208
Categories:

About the author

Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout is the Pulitzer prize-winning author of My Name is Lucy Barton, Anything is Possible, Oh William!, Amy and Isabelle, Abide With Me, The Burgess Boys, Olive Kitteridge, and Olive, Again. She has been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize. She lives in Maine.
portrait photo of Elizabeth Strout

Also by Elizabeth Strout

My Name Is Lucy Barton
Tell Me Everything
Lucy by the Sea
Oh William!
Anything is Possible
Olive, Again
My Name Is Lucy Barton (Dramatisation)
See all

Praise for The Things We Never Say

A moving, tender and wise novel about a committed teacher who is utterly confounded by the emotional complexities of daily life. This might be Elizabeth Strout’s best yet

Clare Chambers

I was torn between wanting to devour it in a single sitting and slowly savouring its brilliance. Strout writes about some of the darkest, saddest things with such grace and humanity that you're left still feeling optimistic about the world. The Things We Never Say is utterly captivating in the classic Stroutian understated way. No one else delves into the intricacies of everyday life with such searing insight and honesty. If stranded on a desert island, The Complete Works of Strout, would unequivocally be my book of choice to remind me of the complexity and ultimate goodness of people.

Roxy Dunn

One of the best novels I have read. I am so stunned by it, how moving and beautiful and perfect it is

Anna Funder

One of the most profoundly moving books I have read - I envy anyone reading it for the first time. Elizabeth Strout is one of those rare novelists whose books leave you a little wiser, open and more compassionate than you were when you began reading. Emotionally stunning, devastatingly wise, a beautiful read. Her best novel yet

Rachel Joyce