Vignettes of life in a small coastal town in Maine. The title character, a middle-aged former teacher, provides the central thread that weaves its way through various stories that share a common time and place. Olive is the protagonist in some of the chapters and only briefly mentioned in others. This is a wonderfully unvarnished look at ordinary people, their trials and small triumphs told by an author who obviously has a great deal of admiration for their perseverance. — Alden Graves
Olive is a late middle-aged woman from a small town in Maine and her character forms the point around which these linked stories swirl. Emotional and intelligent... real life glimpsed through her eyes and subject to her personal attachments, hopes, and fears. — Karen Frank
“The book discussion we had about Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher in a little town in Maine, was one of the best we ever had. The reading group members were incredibly passionate about their love of the book and their love (and hatred) of Olive. We laughed and cried, and one member called us afterward and asked what we were going to read to get us that riled up again!”
— Deb McDonald, Garden District Book Shop, New Orleans, LA