BOOKER PRIZE LONGLIST 2026 | Frankie recommends... The Things We Never Say - Elizabeth Strout

Frankie says... Well colour me stoked. This was the most surprising read for me this year!! I've been avoiding the Strout hype but it is well and truly deserved. She's got this crystal ball directly centered on the banalities and deep sadness of everyday life in this current political climate, capturing the fluttering moments of hope and the small, everyday acts of selfhood (both lonely and empowered) that make up life. This novel in particular is an almost perfect display of the craft of writing, and I'd go so far as to say she was the American Claire Keegan: beautiful, exacting, clear-toned prose that resonates and echoes right around the heart. Best summed up by an endorsement: 'she writes extraordinary fiction about ordinary people'.

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Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbours, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive.

But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad—at himself and the people around him—and turns a question over and over in his mind: how is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us? And then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear—and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.

With exquisite prose and profound insight, Elizabeth Strout captures the way grief reverberates through decades, the comfort found in deep friendships and the freedom that comes when we break free of our secrets. The Things We Never Say is a stunning new novel from one of our most acclaimed observers of the human heart.