Elizabeth Strout’s novel ‘The Things We Never Say’ offers a hand in the dark

At first glance, Elizabeth Strout’s fiction seems light and easy. What we see is what we get, and what we get are clear-cut characters, straightforward storylines, gentle fun, and homespun charm. But the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s novels are deceptively simple. Beneath the surface sparkle and shimmer, there lurk hidden depths. As we turn the pages, we discover that Strout’s tales of small-town life contain big human problems. “Love was the skin that protected you from the world,” muses Patty in Strout’s 2017 novel Anything is Possible. But for characters whose relationships are strained and inner lives are complicated, love is either hard to come by or not nearly strong enough to cushion the blows.

In her new novel, Strout again presents what appear to be ordinary lives and everyday scenarios, and it isn’t long before hard knocks and harder truths reveal complex emotional layers or prompt drastic turns of events. But