Elizabeth Strout

When Amy Goodrow, a shy high school student, falls in love with her math teacher, the love affair threatens the intimate relationship between Amy and her mother, Isabelle, whose feelings are influenced by the shame of her own past. A first novel. 100,000 first printing. Reprint.

Amy and Isabelle

Lindy

No, you couldn't blame these things on God. It was people, just ordinary, regular people, who did this to each other. People ruined other people's lives.

People kept going; they had been doing it for thousands of years. You took the kindness offered, letting it seep as far in as it could go, and the remaining dark crevices you carried around with you, knowing that over time they might change into something almost bearable.

All the love in the world couldn't prevent the awful truth: You passed on who you were.

Amy and Isabelle quotes

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