The art of imagining others

The art of imagining others

We recently sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout, whose fictional characters frequently come to her fully formed, often appearing over her shoulder while she’s, say, unloading the dishwasher. In the case of Artie Dam, protagonist of her latest novel, The Things We Never Say, Strout was perusing a box of obituaries from the 1960’s and 70’s a friend sent her when she came upon a photo of a man named Artie Damm. Something st…