Anything Is Possible
Books | Fiction / Family Life / General
3.6
(110)
Elizabeth Strout
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An unforgettable cast of small-town characters copes with love and loss in this “compulsively readable” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel from #1 bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout“This book, this writer, are magnificent.”—Ann PatchettWinner of The Story Prize • A Washington Post and New York Times Notable Book • One of USA Today’s top 10 books of the yearRecalling Olive Kitteridge in its richness, structure, and complexity, Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others. Here are two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother’s happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton (the heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton, the author’s celebrated New York Times bestseller) returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence. Reverberating with the deep bonds of family, and the hope that comes with reconciliation, Anything Is Possible again underscores Elizabeth Strout’s place as one of America’s most respected and cherished authors.
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More Details:
Author
Elizabeth Strout
Pages
272
Publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Published Date
2017-04-25
ISBN
0812989406 9780812989403
Community ReviewsSee all
"Classic Lucy Barton book. I love how she writes about the realities of life that are often so sad in such a sweet loving way. "
Heidi Oneil
"Almost everything by her "
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Logan Ragsdale
"Each chapter is a separate story, yet all of the characters are connected in some way. Slice of life stories that are all somewhat depressing. It’s well written and engaging but definite not an uplifting read."
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Liz Phillips
"I had never read a collection of short stories before so this was a fun read for me. It was interesting to come to the end of a chapter and to learn about a whole new set of people. <br/>I really enjoyed the interconnected characters and how although seemingly unrelated, the tragedies and challenges of these peoples lives were in fact close in relation to one another but imperceivable from the other’s perspectives. <br/>Each story had a new tale of the importance of familial and marital dependence and support and the ways in which a lack of, or abundance of, these reliabilities truly impact a persons life. <br/>While this book was beautifully written and sewn together it isn’t my favourite I’ve read, mostly for the inability to watch a larger plot unfold. While each story had a new and meaningful one that led to satisfaction at the end, those small victories and heartbreaks were less meaningful to me than those of characters that I spend 300 pages rooting for or against. <br/>3.5"
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Caitlin Betcher
"I was excited to see this book after having enjoyed reading ‘My Name is Lucy Barton’, but I was disappointed. While the characters were all linked together, their stories felt very separate. The book read more like short stories, and not all of them were very satisfying. Many of the characters were rich and interesting, but I felt there was not enough time spent with them to really understand their lives and struggles."
Erin Harty
"I really enjoyed about half of these stories, and as with Olive Kitteridge I liked how they were loosely connected with overlapping characters. I liked Olive Kitteridge so much better though. The occasional page-long run-on rambling sentences drove me crazy and lots of the dialogue seemed so unrealistic (especially the mother/daughter in Italy chapter). Didn’t care for the final chapter and a few others didn’t resonate either.<br/><br/>I didn’t like My Name is Lucy Barton at all, so the fact that she kept coming up here didn’t work for me. Not giving up on Strout just yet but the last two definitely weren’t my favorites!"
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Gretchen Nord
