Product Description

Laura Bartone looks forward to her annual family reunion with a mixture of excitement and wariness. Every year, she and her siblings return to their parent's home outside Minneapolis to attent the state fair. This year, things are different. As soon as she arrives, Laura realises that something is not right with her sister Caroline. On their first evening together, Caroline confronts Laura and their brother Steve with devastating allegations about their mother. Taken aback and incredulous, the siblings are unable to reconcile their perception of the childhood. A sudden tragedy forces them to face the past, their own culpability and their need for love and forgiveness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #253529 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
"* 'Berg oozes warmth, wisdom and generosity of spirit. Her writing is quite brilliant, as soft as a kiss, as sharp as a knife. An American Maeve Binchy, a modern-day Jane Austen, whatever praise you heap on Elizabeth Berg, she probably deserves it.' Anna Maxted * 'Berg knows her characters intimately-she gets under their skin and leaves the reader with an indelible impression of lives challenged and changed.' The Seattle Times * 'Heartwrenching and hilarious. Berg sits somewhere between Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman.' Chicago Sun-Times * 'Maybe Freud didn't know the answer to what women want, but Elizabeth Berg certainly does.' USA Today"

From the Publisher
‘What a lovely writer. Clever, compassionate and superbly skilled, she writes about her characters so poignantly and perceptively that few can match her.’ Elizabeth Buchan, bestselling author of Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman

From the Back Cover
Is it too late to make up for the past?

Laura Bartone looks forward to her annual family reunion with a mixture of excitement and wariness. Every year, she and her siblings return to their parents’ home outside Minneapolis to attend the state fair. This year, things are different. As soon as she arrives, Laura realizes that something is not right with her sister Caroline. On their first evening together, Caroline confronts Laura and their brother Steve with devastating allegations about their mother. Taken aback and incredulous, the siblings are unable to reconcile their perception of their childhood. A sudden tragedy forces them to face the past, their own culpability and their need for love and forgiveness.
‘Elizabeth Berg writes with humour and a big heart about resilience, loneliness, love and hope. And the transcendence that redeems.’ Andre Dubus II

‘Berg knows her characters intimately…she leaves the reader with an indelible impression of lives challenged and changed.’ The Seattle Times

Customer Reviews

Wonderful!
I have just finished reading this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the type of book that you can't put down when you start reading it. This is the third book from this author that I have read and I am so impressed. Her understanding of human nature and complicated emotions is second to none -Life is not black and white, people are not good or bad -they are human. Elizabeth Berg is a joy to read and I would highly recommend her work. I think that she is not very well known on this side of the Atlantic but surely will be in the future.