Anything Is Possible (Amgash #2)

by Elizabeth Strout

He drove past the sign on the road that led down to the Barton home; it still said SEWING AND ALTERATIONS, even though the woman, Lydia Barton, who did the sewing and alterations had died many years ago. The Barton family had been outcasts, even in a town like Amgash, their extreme poverty and strangeness making this so.

Picking up from Amgash #1

She came to understand that people had to decide, really, how they were going to live.

“So dumb,” Scrooge said. “The telling-someone-to-relax thing. When did you ever relax because someone told you to?”