Elizabeth Strout wrote Amy and Isabelle. She also wrote Olive Kitteridge and Olive Again which I loved very much. This story is set in a small town named Shirley Falls, a mill town in New England in the 1970's. Amy is 16 and Isabelle is her single mother. The summer when Amy turns 16, mother and daughter are together day and night because Amy is offered a summer position at the mill with her mother. Isabelle is a lonely, self conscious mother who isolates herself from her coworkers at the mill. Amy is awkward and shy and insecure which makes her the perfect target for a creepy substitute teacher. The relationship between Isabelle and Amy alternates love and loathing. As I read it I could picture the tense jaws and the eye rolls. The story was made into a film in 2001 and it would be fun to see how it differs from the novel.
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