Two literary sequels to devour
Return to Elio and Oliver's romance or spend more time with Olive Kitteridge as two of our favourite books get long-awaited sequels this autumn
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge lives on in the hearts of more than a million readers. Now she lives on in print, as Elizabeth Strout publishes the long awaited follow up to her adored 2008 novel Olive Kitteridge.
Following on from the Pulitzer-winning original, the sequel finds our straight-talking heroine trying to make sense of the second half of her life, and the changes that come with it. She’s adjusting to a second husband, reaching out to her estranged son and learning to open herself up to new life lessons. As ever with Elizabeth Strout, the prose shines with authenticity and the story reminds us of the sublimity of each ordinary life.
Those who have read the original Olive will need no persuading. If you haven’t, it’s a sweet but stunning slip of a book, so start now then slide straight on to the sequel.
Find Me by André Aciman
Since André Aciman’s 2007 best-seller Call Me By Your Name and the exquisite 2017 film adaptation, we’ve been obsessed with the romance of Elio and Oliver (and unable to eat a peach without flashbacks).
Find Me picks up the story in the years that followed that fateful summer. Elio is talented classical pianist in Rome. His father Samuel takes the train to visit, but find himself suddenly sidetracked by a chance encounter. Meanwhile, Oliver is a New England professor with his own family. But something triggers a desire to travel back across the Atlantic.
Aciman captures the painful details and beautiful truths of love - in all its forms and variations. And this sequel takes us back to one of the most powerful modern love stories.