Before there was <i>Olive Kitteridge</i>, there was <i>Amy and Isabelle</i>…<br /><br /> “A novel of shining integrity and humor, about the bravery and hard choices of what is called ordinary life.”—Alice Munro<br /><br /> <b>Pulitzer Prize winning author </b>Elizabeth Strout’s bestselling and award winning debut, <b><i>Amy and Isabelle</i></b>—adapted for television by Oprah Winfrey— evokes a teenager&apos;s alienation from her distant mother—and a parent&apos;s rage at the discovery of her daughter&apos;s sexual secrets. <br /><br /> In most ways, Isabelle and Amy are like any mother and her 16-year-old daughter, a fierce mix of love and loathing exchanged in their every glance. That they eat, sleep, and work side by side in the gossip-ridden mill town of Shirley Falls—a location fans of Strout will recognize from her critically acclaimed novel, <i>The Burgess Boys</i>—only increases the tension. And just when it appears things can&apos;t get any worse, Amy&apos;s sexuality begins to unfold, causing a vast and icy rift between mother and daughter that will remain unbridgeable unless Isabelle examines her own secretive and shameful past.<br /> A Reader&apos;s Guide is included in the paperback edition of this powerful first novel by the author who brought <i>Olive Kitteridge</i> to millions of readers.