Artie Dam is a history teacher at a Massachusetts high school. He cares about his students, and he loves his family and sailing. A near death experience as well as a family revelation and the change in American politics forces Artie to look at life, people and the future differently. Artie Dam is a great teacher, a loving father and husband and a good friend who is trying to make sense of his world.

Elizabeth Strout has never disappointed me. Her prose makes it seem like writing a novel is easy-which of course it isn’t. Her characters are individuals you’d like to sit next to at a dinner party. The Things We Never Say is a terrific work of fiction unless you admire Donald Trump.