Each Man Is an Island (opens in new tab)

Elizabeth Strout’s new novel trades her usual Maine setting for a small town in coastal Massachusetts. By Maria Albano Ask a small child to draw loneliness, and the subjects most likely to take shape on the page are empty homes, weeping orphans, elderly widows, perhaps even a man keeping watch in a lighthouse, surrounded by nothing but a wide ocean. The realization that loneliness might be even more keenly felt in the midst of a familiar crowd is one that dawns with maturity. Where this knowl...