Longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize From one of America's greatest-living novelists comes a new standalone novel of poignant hope and friendship. Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He goes about his days teaching American history to high schoolers, correcting their casual ignorance, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He spends his free time sailing or with his adult son and his wife. But as Artie does these things, he plans the event that will forever change the world he inhabits. When a startling accident awakens a new perspective in Artie, and he realises that life has its own secret it's been keeping from him he charts another course full of grief, hilarity and heart, to a place where the end marks the beginning. Elizabeth Strout delivers a profound exploration of the human condition - one that brims with deep compassion for each and every one of her characters. With exquisite prose and gentle intimacy, Artie Dam takes one man's fears and loneliness and makes them universal. And in the same breath, captures the mysterious love that sustains and holds us through it all.
