Anything Is Possible was published by Random House in 2017 as the companion to My Name Is Lucy Barton. Where the earlier novel told Lucy’s story from the inside, this novel returns to the community she left — the small Illinois town of Amgash and its residents, some of whom appeared as gossip in Lucy’s mother’s hospital-room monologues. The effect is like looking at the same landscape from a different angle: characters who were anecdotes in Lucy’s novel become fully realized people with their own histories, desires, and disappointments.
The linked stories follow a diverse cast. Tommy Guptill, an aging farmer, watches a documentary about Lucy Barton and remembers the impoverished, neglected children she and her siblings were. Pete Barton, Lucy’s brother, lives in the family house with a quiet desperation that Lucy’s escape has not relieved. The Nicely sisters, former beauties, have settled into marriages of varying bleakness. A janitor harbors a secret. An elderly woman discovers late-life connection with an unlikely friend.
Strout’s genius for the story cycle — demonstrated in Olive Kitteridge — is fully on display. Each story stands alone, but the connections between them create a cumulative portrait of a community defined by what it cannot say. The people of Amgash are not stupid or unkind, but they live in a culture of reticence where emotional expression is suspect and vulnerability is dangerous. The poverty that shaped Lucy’s childhood shaped everyone else’s too, and its effects persist long after the material conditions have changed.
The title — Anything Is Possible — is both hopeful and ironic. The stories suggest that change is possible, that connection is possible, that even the most damaged people can surprise themselves with kindness. But they also show how rare such moments are, and how easily they can be missed or refused.
Collecting Anything Is Possible
First edition (Random House, New York, 2017): Cloth, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $10–$20
- Later editions: $5–$10