Literary Fiction · Free kit
The Things We Never Say
Artie Dam is fifty-seven, a well-liked high school history teacher in a coastal Massachusetts town in 2024, the man who sails on weekends and still cannot quite believe he lives in his wife's inherited house by the water. Inside, he feels cut off from Evie, now a family therapist, and from their son Rob, withdrawn since a crash ten years earlier. Elizabeth Strout's Booker Prize 2026 shortlisted novel is spare, political, and quietly devastating: a portrait of loneliness, the things a family will not name, and what happens when a long-buried secret finally reaches the person it was kept from.
“I wonder why people never say anything real.”
Complete free book club kit
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Plan your meeting
The Things We Never Say Hosting Guide
A free, printable-minded plan for hosting The Things We Never Say.
Invite hook
“A well-liked Massachusetts teacher, a harbor, and a family that cannot get the real sentence out. Come talk The Things We Never Say — quietly, and with care.”
The question you’re arguing about: If the people who like you do not actually know you, is that their failure, or yours?
Shopping list
- □New England clam chowder with oyster crackers (clams, potatoes, cream)
- □Blueberry muffins or a simple blueberry buckle — Massachusetts on a plate
- □Cape Cod kettle chips and a bowl of grapes or apple slices
- □Tea, coffee, lemonade, juice, and sparkling water
- □A small sailboat or paper-boat centerpiece; a blue-grey cloth for the table
- □Printed unsent-note cards for the surprise touch, plus tissues within reach
- □A door card with the content note (suicidal thoughts, crash, family secret) so no one is ambushed
- □Bingo cards and extra pens
Day-of timeline
- 0–10 minWelcome, content note, and icebreakers (readers, not the water or the letter — keep the dinghy and Rob's confession off the welcome mat)
- 10–20 minTrivia warm-up — Damn-dam, Spud's, Revere, the harbor, Teacher of the Year
- 20–50 minMain discussion (start with the public Artie vs the kitchen table; save the letter, the explorer speech, and Evie's last word for the back half)
- 50–65 minSpeed debate: tell Evie or not, or whether the fall was only an accident — pause if anyone needs out
- 65–75 minBingo, one-word rating, pick next month (something lighter is allowed)
Surprise touch
Leave a folded index card at each seat. Outside: "History — Dam." Inside: a blank line headed "The thing I never said." Guests may write something they do not have to read aloud, or leave it empty. It makes the title an object, not a lecture, and nobody has to perform their private weather.
Wrap-up
- □Group photo with the paper boats or unsent-note cards in the frame — only if the room still wants a camera
- □Quick rating round: 1–5 stars and one word each (expect "lonely," "quiet," and "I would have told her")
- □Vote on next month's book together