Author · guide verified September 10, 2026
Elizabeth Strout Books in Order
Every Elizabeth Strout book in publication order — 13 in total, spanning 1998–2026.
Elizabeth Strout writes about small towns in Maine and the people who can't quite say what they mean — and she has become, book by quiet book, one of the most beloved novelists in America. Olive Kitteridge, her blunt, difficult, heartbreaking retired math teacher, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. Lucy Barton, her tender narrator from a childhood of terrible poverty, has carried five novels. And in Tell Me Everything (2024) Strout did the thing her readers had been quietly hoping for: she put Olive and Lucy in the same room. Her books are short, plain and devastating, and they reward being read in order more than you'd expect.
Publication Order of Olive Kitteridge Books
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Olive Kitteridge | 2008 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 |  Olive, Again | 2019 | Amazon US UK |
Publication Order of Amgash Books
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  My Name Is Lucy Barton | 2016 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 |  Anything Is Possible | 2017 | Amazon US UK |
| 3 | Oh William! | 2021 | Amazon US |
| 4 | Lucy by the Sea | 2022 | Amazon US |
| 5 | Tell Me Everything | 2024 | Amazon US |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Amy and Isabelle | 1998 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 |  Abide with Me | 2006 | Amazon US UK |
| 3 |  The Burgess Boys | 2013 | Amazon US UK |
| 4 | The Things We Never Say | 2026 | Amazon US |
Publication Order of Anthologies
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  The Best American Short Stories 2013 | 2013 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 |  The Stories of Frederick Busch | 2013 | Amazon US UK |
Every title by year All 13, oldest to newest
| # | Title | Year | Get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amy and Isabelle | 1998 | Amazon US UK |
| 2 | Abide with Me | 2006 | Amazon US UK |
| 3 | Olive Kitteridge | 2008 | Amazon US UK |
| 4 | The Burgess Boys | 2013 | Amazon US UK |
| 5 | The Best American Short Stories 2013 | 2013 | Amazon US UK |
| 6 | The Stories of Frederick Busch | 2013 | Amazon US UK |
| 7 | My Name Is Lucy Barton | 2016 | Amazon US UK |
| 8 | Anything Is Possible | 2017 | Amazon US UK |
| 9 | Olive, Again | 2019 | Amazon US UK |
| 10 | Oh William! | 2021 | Amazon US |
| 11 | Lucy by the Sea | 2022 | Amazon US |
| 12 | Tell Me Everything | 2024 | Amazon US |
| 13 | The Things We Never Say | 2026 | Amazon US |
How the Elizabeth Strout books connect
The Olive books
Olive Kitteridge (2008) and Olive, Again (2019) are the pair. Both are novels-in-stories: each chapter follows a different resident of Crosby, and Olive is sometimes the center, sometimes a figure glimpsed across a room. Read them in order — the second picks Olive up in her seventies and is, if anything, the braver book.
The Lucy Barton (Amgash) books
My Name Is Lucy Barton (2016) introduces Lucy, a New York writer who grew up dirt-poor in Amgash, Illinois, through a long conversation with her mother at a hospital bedside. Anything Is Possible (2017) circles back to Amgash and the people Lucy left behind. Oh William! (2021, shortlisted for the Booker Prize) follows Lucy and her first husband on a strange road trip; Lucy by the Sea (2022) takes them to Maine during the pandemic; and Tell Me Everything (2024) settles Lucy in Crosby, where she strikes up a friendship with Bob Burgess — and, at last, with Olive Kitteridge. Read these five strictly in order.
The standalones — and why they aren’t quite standalone
Amy and Isabelle (1998), her debut, and Abide with Me (2006) can be read any time. The Burgess Boys (2013) is worth reading before Tell Me Everything, because Bob Burgess — its warm, put-upon lawyer — becomes a major figure in that later book. And her newest novel, The Things We Never Say (May 2026), is a true standalone that leaves Maine for a coastal Massachusetts town and a whole new cast; Strout has said writing it felt like 'turning a page.'
Elizabeth Strout on screen
Olive has been to the screen once, and it could not have gone better.
- 2014Olive KitteridgeMiniseries — HBO; Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins. Swept the Emmys.
- 2020My Name Is Lucy BartonStage — One-woman Broadway play starring Laura Linney.
If you liked the show, read the books
Liked Olive Kitteridge (HBO / Max)? Read Olive, Again — the miniseries covers only the first book, and the second is the one that will undo you.
Frequently asked
What order should I read Elizabeth Strout books in?
Read the Olive books in order (Olive Kitteridge, Olive, Again) and the Lucy Barton books in order (My Name Is Lucy Barton, Anything Is Possible, Oh William!, Lucy by the Sea, Tell Me Everything). Read The Burgess Boys before Tell Me Everything, since its characters return. Amy and Isabelle, Abide with Me and The Things We Never Say (2026) stand alone.
Do I need to read Olive Kitteridge before Tell Me Everything?
It helps a great deal. Tell Me Everything brings Olive, Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess together, so it lands hardest if you have read Olive Kitteridge, the Lucy books and The Burgess Boys first.
What is Elizabeth Strout’s newest book?
The Things We Never Say (May 2026), a standalone novel set in coastal Massachusetts. Before that came Tell Me Everything (2024).
Which Elizabeth Strout book won the Pulitzer?
Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2009. Oh William! was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022.
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