Elizabeth Strout has released a standalone novel, "The Things We Never Say," which is about a high school history teacher who feels increasingly dislocated from the world. The book is about the character Artie Dam, who struggles to navigate a world that he holds most closely. The author's ability to connect with these characters and create a reading experience of both warmth and worry. The novel is described as "world pain" by the German word for melancholy or weariness.