The Things We Never Say

Holy smokes, this spring seems to have all my favorite authors delivering a new book, and this one is at the top of my list. Elizabeth Strout can pull us into an easy, instant connection with her protagonist, and Artie Dam, the center of The Things We Never Say, is no exception. Artie has been teaching high school English for decades, and we watch as he quietly shores up deserving students and gives grace where needed in a world gone nuts. He takes his little sailboat out every weekend and continues to wonder, over and over again, how we can know so little about the interior lives of those we are closest to. Then his son tells him something that reiterates his question, leaving him baffled about how to move forward, with the rug having been yanked out from beneath his boat shoes. Strout gives us hope through the goodness of her characters, and we certainly could do with some of that.