The Things We Never Say

Artie Dam is fifty-seven and once won Massachusetts' Teacher of the Year award; he still teaches history to teenagers in a seaside town. His pupils, his grown son Rob and a colleague who quietly loves him all see a kind, dependable man; at weekends he sails, and he goes to parties with Evie, his wife of thirty years. Inwardly he feels cut off from everyone, troubled by dark thoughts and odd little impulses, and puzzled that people understand so little of the ones they love. Meanwhile the country lurches through the 2024 presidential election, which leaves him in despair. Partway through, a revelation shakes his world and pushes him to rethink his closest bonds and the secrets people keep from one another.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

United States, 2020s

First published

2026

Author's age

70 when first published

ISBN

9798217154746 (Random House, United States)

9780241814307 (Viking, United Kingdom)

9781405989084 (Penguin, United Kingdom)

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