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Elizabeth Strout

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Books Written by Elizabeth Strout

Strout has built a career on deeply empathetic, closely observed fiction set largely in small-town Maine, most famously through Olive Kitteridge, a prickly, difficult, and ultimately beloved recurring character who won Strout the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her later novels have increasingly interconnected, with characters from different books meeting and overlapping across her fictional universe.

Olive Kitteridge is the essential and most acclaimed starting point, though My Name Is Lucy Barton is the better entry if you want her more directly autobiographical register.

By Lisanne Swart · 5 books · Literary Fiction · Updated August 2026

Quick answer

Elizabeth Strout is best known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge (2008) and its sequel Olive, Again (2019), along with My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016), The Burgess Boys (2013), and Tell Me Everything (2024). Olive Kitteridge is the essential starting point.

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01
Literary FictionStart here

Olive Kitteridge

Elizabeth Strout · 2008

Thirteen interconnected stories set in coastal Maine, centered on Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who is by turns cruel, funny, and unexpectedly tender, told through the perspectives of the people whose lives intersect with hers.

Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2009 and became one of the most beloved literary character studies of the 2000s — Olive’s prickliness combined with genuine depth made her one of contemporary fiction’s most memorable protagonists.

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02
Literary Fiction

My Name Is Lucy Barton

Elizabeth Strout · 2016

A woman recovering from surgery in a New York hospital is visited by her estranged mother, and the ensuing conversation, circling around old family wounds without ever directly confronting them, becomes the entire novel.

A quieter, more directly autobiographical-feeling novel than Olive Kitteridge, launching a series of related books following Lucy Barton across subsequent volumes.

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03
Literary Fiction

Olive, Again

Elizabeth Strout · 2019

A sequel to Olive Kitteridge, catching up with Olive in her later years as she navigates aging, remarriage, and an evolving, softening relationship with her own difficult nature.

Shows genuine character growth in Olive across the decade between books, without ever fully sanding down the prickliness that made her so compelling in the first place.

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04
Literary Fiction

The Burgess Boys

Elizabeth Strout · 2013

Two brothers from small-town Maine, now living very different adult lives, are drawn back home after their nephew commits a hate crime, forcing them to confront old family resentments and their hometown’s changing demographics.

One of Strout’s more explicitly political novels, addressing immigration and small-town prejudice alongside her usual close family psychology.

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05
Literary Fiction

Tell Me Everything

Elizabeth Strout · 2024

A novel bringing together characters from across Strout’s body of work — Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, and attorney Bob Burgess — centered on a Maine woman’s disappearance and the friendships that form around trying to understand it.

A culmination of Strout’s increasingly interconnected fictional universe, letting her most beloved characters meet and interact for the first time.

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Watch: Elizabeth Strout: The Waterstones Interview

Elizabeth Strout discusses the return of Olive Kitteridge in Olive, Again and the wisdom that comes with growing older, in conversation with Waterstones.

Where to start with Elizabeth Strout

If you want her defining work

Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize and remains her most acclaimed book.

If you want her more autobiographical register

My Name Is Lucy Barton is quieter and more directly personal in feel.

If you’re already a fan wanting the crossover

Tell Me Everything brings Olive, Lucy, and Bob Burgess together for the first time.

Frequently asked questions about Elizabeth Strout’s books

How many books has Elizabeth Strout written?

Elizabeth Strout has written ten novels, including Amy and Isabelle (1998), Olive Kitteridge (2008), The Burgess Boys (2013), My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016), Olive, Again (2019), and Tell Me Everything (2024).

What is the best Elizabeth Strout book to start with?

Olive Kitteridge. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and remains her most acclaimed and widely read book.

Are Elizabeth Strout’s novels connected?

Increasingly, yes. Her more recent novels, including Tell Me Everything, bring together characters from across her body of work, including Olive Kitteridge, Lucy Barton, and the Burgess brothers, into a shared fictional universe.

Written by Lisanne Swart

Lisanne curates books for curious readers at lisanneswart.com, publishing original reading lists, author deep-dives, and honest recommendations since 2021. Read more about Lisanne.

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