Literary fiction lovers, rejoice! Elizabeth Strout's "Tell Me Everything" will leave you in a state of reflection and peace. 

A crime has been committed in Crosby, Maine. Bob Burgess is the defense attorney but is also plagued with his own questions from a childhood trauma. While Bob is working on the case, Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton trade stories - regular stories about regular people. Some had triumphant endings, and others were more malaise. Lucy trades these stories with Bob on their weekly walks - as the reader, we're sucked into these other worlds questioning life, love, and the meaning of it all. 

The story takes place primarily in Crosby, Maine, but characters jaunt between the New England states throughout. The Maine setting offers a sense of community - the people who live there depend on each other to survive and for entertainment. (read: hot gossip). Olive Kitteridge is a trip and a half, the way she engages with Lucy Barton. Strout’s ability to create stories of such heavy topics is unmatched, and I found it hard to put this book down because I was so immersed in this world. 

I loved the flow and pacing of this character driven story - what’s funny is that the stories, as I mentioned earlier, well some where kind of plot less or pointless, but Strout’s way with words reminds us that these are stories of people. And people are people. And that’s what makes this story so special.