Abide with Me

A Novel

By: Elizabeth Strout

Narrated by: Gerrianne Raphael

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Olive Kitteridge comes a “superb” (O: The Oprah Magazine) novel that “confirms Strout as the possessor of an irresistibly companionable, peculiarly American voice.” (The Atlantic Monthly)

In the late 1950s, in a small New England town, Reverend Tyler Caskey has suffered a terrible loss and finds it hard to be the person he once was. He struggles to find the right words in his sermons and in his conversations with those facing crises of their own, and to bring his five-year-old daughter, Katherine, out of the silence she has observed in the wake of the family’s tragedy. Tyler’s usually patient and kind congregation now questions his leadership and propriety, and accusations are born out of anger and gossip. Then, in Tyler’s darkest hour, a startling discovery will test his parish’s humanity—and his own will to endure the trials that sooner or later test us all.

©2006 Elizabeth Strout (P)2006 Random House Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

“Strout’s greatly anticipated second novel . . . is an answered prayer.”—Vanity Fair

“Superb . . . a shimmering tale of loss, faith, and human fallibility . . . You feel yourself in the hands of a master storyteller.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“Deeply moving . . . In one beautiful page after another, Strout captures the mysterious combinations of hope and sorrow. She sees all these wounded people with heartbreaking clarity, but she has managed to write a story that cradles them in understanding and that, somehow, seems like a foretaste of salvation.”—The Washington Post

Her insights into humanity are deep in remarkable

In someways this was a difficult book to listen to. There were so much struggling and so much of the ugly side of humanity. But it is worth getting through because in the end it does show some of the redeeming aspects of humanity as well.

So I do recommend it and in some ways feel it should be read by children in school so that they think more clearly about what they’re doing.

It is a strange choice to me however that a female was chosen to read this book. I generously gave it four stars in this area because she is talented and gave it her all, but I believe the choice of a female was wrong.

I look forward to reading more Elizabeth Strout books.