Reading Elizabeth Strout books in order introduces you to intimate stories about family, loneliness, love, and life in close-knit New England communities. Strout is best known for creating Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton, two complicated, sharply observed women whose lives connect with a wider cast of recurring characters.
Her fiction includes linked story collections, novels, and two overlapping character sequences. Olive Kitteridge won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and several of her books have been adapted for television or the stage.
Jump to:
- Elizabeth Strout Books by Series
- Elizabeth Strout Standalone and Other Novels
- Elizabeth Strout Edited Collections and Other Contributions
- Elizabeth Strout Adaptations
- About Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout Books by Series
Elizabeth Strout’s recurring fiction centers on Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton. The two sequences eventually overlap in Tell Me Everything, which also brings back Bob Burgess from The Burgess Boys.
Olive Kitteridge Books
Olive Kitteridge is a linked collection of 13 stories set in Crosby, Maine. Some stories focus directly on Olive, while others show how the blunt, complicated former schoolteacher affects the people around her. The book won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
There are two dedicated Olive Kitteridge books. Read them in publication order. Olive also has a major role in Tell Me Everything, but that book is a crossover with the Lucy Barton sequence rather than a third numbered Olive book.
- Olive Kitteridge (2008)
- Olive, Again (2019)
Lucy Barton (Amgash) Books
The Lucy Barton books follow Lucy’s life, family, writing career, and changing relationship with her first husband, William. Anything Is Possible expands the story through people from Lucy’s hometown of Amgash, Illinois, so Lucy isn’t the viewpoint character throughout that book.
Read these five books in publication order. Tell Me Everything brings Lucy together with Olive Kitteridge and Bob Burgess. It works as the fifth Lucy Barton book, but I recommend reading The Burgess Boys and the two Olive books first if you want the full background.
- My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016)
- Anything Is Possible (2017)
- Oh William! (2021)
- Lucy by the Sea (2022)
- Tell Me Everything (2024)
Elizabeth Strout Standalone and Other Novels
Elizabeth Strout’s other novels can be read in any order. Amy and Isabelle follows a mother and daughter in a small New England town, while Abide with Me centers on a grieving minister in 1950s Maine. The Burgess Boys follows three adult siblings and introduces Bob Burgess, who later becomes central to Tell Me Everything. The Things We Never Say introduces a separate cast and story.
- Amy and Isabelle (1998)
- Abide with Me (2006)
- The Burgess Boys (2013)
- The Things We Never Say (2026)
Elizabeth Strout Edited Collections and Other Contributions
Strout has edited collections and contributed short fiction and essays to anthologies. Her work has also appeared in magazines, but the lists below focus on substantial book-form publications.
Edited Collections
- The Best American Short Stories 2013 (2013): guest edited by Strout and includes her introduction
- The Stories of Frederick Busch (2013): selected and edited by Strout and includes her introduction
Short Stories and Essays in Anthologies
- The Friend Who Got Away (2005): essay contribution
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2008 (2008): includes “A Different Road,” one of the linked stories in Olive Kitteridge
- Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: Stories of Work (2011): includes “Pharmacy” from Olive Kitteridge
- The O. Henry Prize Stories 2015 (2015): includes “Snow Blind,” later collected as “Snow-Blind” in Anything Is Possible
- Providence Noir (2015): includes “Once, at Trinity Rep”
- Night Stories: Fifteen Paintings and the Stories They Inspired (2017): includes the first book publication of “The Walk”
- It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art (2018): includes “The Walk,” later collected in Olive, Again
- The Story Prize: 15 Years of Great Short Fiction (2019): includes “The Sign” from Anything Is Possible
- Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases (2020): essay contribution
- Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Stories (2022): includes “Home”
- The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love (2026): essay contribution
Elizabeth Strout Adaptations
Several Elizabeth Strout books have been adapted for television or the stage.
- Amy & Isabelle (2001): An ABC television film starring Elisabeth Shue and Hanna Hall.
- Olive Kitteridge (2014): A four-part HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins.
- My Name Is Lucy Barton (stage adaptation): Rona Munro adapted the novel as a one-woman play starring Laura Linney. The production opened on Broadway in 2020 after its London run.
About Elizabeth Strout
Elizabeth Strout was born in Portland, Maine, and grew up in small towns in Maine and New Hampshire. She developed a deep appreciation for nature during those years, and the physical landscape and close-knit communities of New England play an important role throughout her fiction.
Strout says she considered herself a writer from a young age, but before she became a published author, she was first a very bad lawyer. She earned a degree in English from Bates College, followed by a certificate in gerontology and a law degree from Syracuse University. She practiced law for six months before pursuing fiction.
She was 42 when her first novel, Amy and Isabelle, was published. Her 2008 linked story collection Olive Kitteridge won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Looking for similar books in order?
If you want more romance authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Romance Books in Order index.