THE GREATNESS OF THE EVERYDAY

American author Elizabeth Strout and her British counterpart Tessa Hadley are both masters at depicting the dramas inherent in ordinary life. Their stories are portrayed with psychological acuity, and the characters with such warmth that their lives feel universal: We all recognize ourselves in the struggles of elderly math teacher Olive Kitteridge or in the passion that suddenly strikes the proper middle-class woman in Tessa Hadley's novel Free Love.