Q: Having loved Elizabeth Strout’s novels My Name Is Lucy Barton and Anything Is Possible, I devoured all her books. Who can I read next in the same vein? Jane Flood, London

A: Alex Clark, artistic director for words and literature, the Bath festival

I’m not surprised you fell in love with Elizabeth Strout – she’s a truly exceptional and humane writer, with a particular way of portraying “ordinary” people that fully understands their individuality and idiosyncrasy. She’s also terrific on place.

So, where next? I would first suggest two other American writers who don’t generate quite the noise that their male colleagues do, Jane Smiley (start with A Thousand Acres, a contemporary retelling of King Lear, and then move on to Smiley’s Last Hundred Years trilogy), and Meg Wolitzer (The Wife, The Interestings and the forthcoming The Female Persuasion). 

I can’t help but throw in anything by Marilynne Robinson as well – a different kind of writer, but with a family resemblance in terms of recognising grace in the everyday.

Strout also writes a great deal about the tension between “home”, family and community, the restrictions of class, and the yearning to get away. For wonderful books that explore that very subject, I’d kick off with Zadie Smith’s NW, Margaret Drabble’s Jerusalem the Golden and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake.

And if you did just happen to want something set in Maine, like Strout’s chronicle of small-town life, Olive Kitteridge, head for Richard Russo’s Empire Falls or the works of Stephen King or John Irving.

Looking for the next Philip Roth? Or maybe you loved Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk and want to discover more nature memoirs. If you’ve got a question for Book Clinic, submit it below or email us at bookclinic@observer.co.uk