Olive Kitteridge cover art

Olive Kitteridge

Fiction

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Olive Kitteridge

By: Elizabeth Strout
Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
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About this listen

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • The beloved first novel featuring Olive Kitteridge, from the number one New York Times best-selling author of the Oprah’s Book Club pick Olive, Again

“Fiction lovers, remember this name: Olive Kitteridge.... You’ll never forget her.” (USA Today)

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post Book World USA Today San Francisco Chronicle Chicago Tribune Seattle Post-Intelligencer People Entertainment Weekly The Christian Science Monitor The Plain Dealer The Atlantic Rocky Mountain News Library Journal

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life - sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition - its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.

The inspiration for the Emmy Award-winning HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, and Bill Murray

©2008 Elizabeth Strout (P)2019 Random House Audio
Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Marriage Heartfelt Short Story

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Critic reviews

Olive Kitteridge still lingers in memory like a treasured photograph.” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

“Rarely does a story collection pack such a gutsy emotional punch.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force.... [She] makes us experience not only the terrors of change but also the terrifying hope that change can bring: she plunges us into these churning waters and we come up gasping for air.” (The New Yorker)

All stars
Most relevant  
Enjoyed every minute of these entrancing gently visceral life vignettes.
Narrator was a character in each story and through out. 10/10

Olive Kitteridge is someone we already know

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Second time even better than the first time - a very special book. I love Olive

Wonderful

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Superb, insightful writing about being human and getting old. I’ve never read anything quite so touching and yet so ‘real’. Maybe a little melancholy, but I found it funny and soothing. Unfortunately the Audible announcement at the end spoilt the beauty of the last lines. Great narration too.

Sublime

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I enjoyed this audiobook. Basically it is a series of stories about and around a housewife Olive Kitteridge. This book is a series of lovely stories. Each one good in a different way; the characters well painted. It was easy to get lost in the stories.

The narration brought Olive to life and she feels like someone I know. I look forward to listening to the other books in the series.

I like Olive..

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Loved Olive and this book....characters were very real and often more was said by what wasn't said.

Loved Olive and this book....

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It took me about 10 minutes to get used to things then I was hooked.

Wonderful

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This is a great collection of short stories, beautifully narrated. I've already bought the sequel.

Excellent

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I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this, and after chapter 1 hated the title character. But this book grows on you, and by the end I loved Olive, and admired her. Definitely worth giving this book the time

Paced and sad

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The book is great but the narration is even better. Just the best reading of an audio book I've heard. Perfectly suits the story. I'm off to look for more things narrated by Kimberley Farr.

Fabulous narration.

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This is a beautifully read, extraordinary and almost perfect work of art. What is so original about it, from this reader’s perspective, is hard to pin down: the tenderness and spite of small town life, widowhood, ageing and loneliness, all have been done before. Perhaps it is the cussedness and realism of Olive herself, a large and unbreakable-seeming, though broken, American lady of a kind I’ve never encountered but who now will never leave me.

What a breakthrough

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