Elizabeth Strout

Maine is both a natural and, I believe, a conscious choice as the setting for Elizabeth Strout's book, Olive Kitteridge.  Many of the thirteen stories which comprise this book take place along the rocky coastline of Maine which Strout describes with the subtle, true familiarity of a native. In fact, Elizabeth Strout was born in Portland, Maine, and grew up in remote towns in Maine as well as New Hampshire. Her parents deliberately protected Elizabeth from outside influences,and she describes her upbringing as being very strict. The stony, isolating, and lonely nature of some of her characters seems to be reflected in the natural landscape of Crosby, Maine, the fictional town in Olive Kitteridge.  Read more here about the author's life and the fragments of her own family history that appear in bits and pieces in Olive Kitteridge, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009.