Main content

Elizabeth Strout: Olive Kitteridge

Harriett Gilbert talks to the world-renowned American author Elizabeth Strout.

This month’s World Book Club is the ninth in our series celebrating the greatest women writers at work across the globe. Harriett Gilbert and listeners from around the world talk to the world-renowned American author Elizabeth Strout at her home in New Brunswick, Maine, in the USA.

The novel under discussion is her internationally-garlanded Olive Kitteridge: a novel made up of 13 luminous short stories set in small-town Maine and bound together by one larger-than-life character, the flawed and fascinating Olive Kitteridge.

Retired school teacher and long-time wife of the long-suffering Henry, Olive struggles to make sense of the changes in her life and the lives of those around her. Her travails, at once parochial but also universal, make readers laugh, nod in recognition, as well as wince in pain.

(Picture: Elizabeth Strout. Photo credit: Leonard Cendamo.)

Available now

50 minutes

Last on

Wed 9 Sep 2020 23:06GMT
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service

More episodes

Previous

Helen Garner: The Spare Room

Next

Ali Smith: How to Be Both

See all episodes from World Book Club

Broadcasts

  • Sun 6 Sep 2020 02:06GMT
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
  • Sun 6 Sep 2020 13:06GMT
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
  • Wed 9 Sep 2020 09:06GMT
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
  • Wed 9 Sep 2020 23:06GMT
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service

Featured in...

Ten Amazing Interviews

Favourite episodes of World Book Club, featuring Maya Angelou and Henning Mankell.

Crime Fiction

Henning Mankel, Patrica Cornwell, Jo Nesbo: stars of the genre discuss their craft.

Tales from History

From the tulip fields of 17th Century Amsterdam to the trenches of World War One.

Podcast

  • World Book Club

    The world's great authors discuss their best-known novel.