It took me a while to warm to Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. It’s the most recent instalment of her ‘Lucy Barton’ series set in Maine. As that’s what I thought it was going to be, so I was thrown by a statement right at the beginning of this novel that this was to be Bob Burgess’s story not Lucy’s.

Bob is a former lawyer who arranged for Lucy and her ex husband William to rent a house in Crosby, Maine so they could escape Covid-stricken New York. Bob was a fringe character in the previous novel Lucy by the Sea but in this latest title, he plays a more significant part.

For a time I thought he’d supplanted Lucy as the main attraction. She seemed to be just a foil for him to share stories about his church-preaching wife and his alcoholic ex wife. But Lucy turns out to have more of a pivotal role than that and such is the power of Elizabeth Strout’s writing that slowly, but surely, I became hooked.

The core of Tell Me Everything is the friendship that deepens between Bob and Lucy as they take riverside walks together. They share observations about the people around them, talk about their hopes and regrets, and keep each other abreast of events in their lives.

Bob has plenty to share with Lucy — his sister in law is dying, his ex wife confesses to alcoholism and his current wife is more interested in her church preaching than in Bob. From Lucy comes reflections on her relationship with her ex husband William, a man she once divorced because of his infidelity but they’ve moved back in together in Crosby.

Another friendship develops during the course of this novel when Lucy befriends one of Crosby’s longest inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge. During their afternoons together in Olive’s retirement community apartment, they tell each other stories. Stories that span from chance acquaintances on trains to revelations about parental cruelty and betrayall. Other stories feature people they have known – “unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them.

The two women are very different characters. Lucy, thoughtful and nervous, Olive as forthright as she was in Olive Kitteridge. But after many get-togethers they find one thing they have in common — a deep interest in people. 

Lucy stood up and pulled on her coat. “Those are my stories,” she said, and then bent down to put her boots back on. “But you’re right. They are stories of loneliness and love.” Lucy stepped into the tiny kitchen for a moment and returned with a paper towel and she bent down and soaked up the drops of water on the floor left from her boots. Then she picked up her bag and said, “And the small connections we make in this world if we are lucky.” And then to Olive’s amazement, Lucy said, smiling at her with a gentleness on her face, “And I feel that way about you. A connection. Love. So thank you.” She moved toward the door. Olive said, “Wait.” As Lucy turned, Olive said, “Well, phooey. I feel connected to you too. So there.” She stuck out her tongue.

The Power of Storytelling

Throughout the novel Strout shows that storytelling isn’t simply about amusing or entertaining another person, or simply a way to pass time—it’s about creating connection in a world that can feel isolating and incomprehensible.

Lucy wrestles with what it means to tell the story of another human being. As a professional writer she recognises the power of storytelling but is equally conscious of its responsibilities. She wants and needs to tell the truth In her exchanges with Olive and Bob, but what if honesty would cause harm to another individual? The balance between honesty and compassionate is something Lucy returns to again and again.

Lucy Barton, as a professional writer, embodies the questions at the novel’s core: What is our responsibility when we tell other people’s stories? How do we balance honesty with compassion? Strout uses Lucy’s character to examine the ethical dimensions of storytelling, showing how the act of observation and narration carries weight and consequence. Tell Me Everything shows the power of storytelling — the tales shared between Bob, Lucy and Olive are not simply ways to pass the time; they are opportunities to reach for understanding and compassion.

What Happens Next?

Tell Me Everything has an ending but not in the sense that everything is resolved. Whether that means Elizabeth Strout plans to write another Lucy Barton episode is uncertain.

In an interview for the Booker Prize website, she was asked if there were aspects of Lucy’s character yet to be explored. Her answer was clear that there’s nothing in the works currently: “I think I am done writing about Lucy. I say that, but I have said that before. But I really do think I am done with her. We will see. But it was a great run'”

In the meantime we can look forward to a new standalone novel set in coastal Massachusetts — The Things We Never Say — coming out in August 2026.