The Things We Never Say
Artie Dam teaches high school history in a small town on the Massachusetts coast. He has a wife of three decades, decent friends, and a sailboat he takes out on the bay on weekends. From the outside he looks fine. Inside he is lonely, and he keeps asking how we can know so little about the people closest to us. Then he finds out that life has been keeping a secret from him too, and he has to rethink everything he holds dear. It is Strout's third time on a Booker list.
A quiet coastal novel about the secrets under an ordinary life. Take it out on the water.
The Booker judges said: “A devastating look at the dangerous cracks in family life and in the contemporary world at large. Strout’s prose is brilliantly understated and all the more powerful for that.”
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First published in the UK by Viking, 7 May 2026. The winner is announced November 9, 2026. Source: The Booker Prizes.