Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Elizabeth Berg Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Elizabeth Berg
Photo © 2003 Joyce Ravid

Elizabeth Berg

Elizabeth Berg Biography

Elizabeth Berg is the author of many bestselling novels, including Open House (an Oprah's Book Club selection), Talk Before Sleep, and The Year of Pleasures, as well as the short story collection The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted. Durable Goods and Joy School were selected as ALA Best Books of the Year. She adapted The Pull of the Moon into a play that enjoyed sold-out performances in Chicago and Indianapolis. Berg's work has been translated into twenty-seven languages, and three of her novels have been turned into television movies. She is the founder of Writing Matters, a quality reading series dedicated to serving author, audience, and community. She teaches one-day writing workshops and is a popular speaker at venues around the country. Some of her most popular Facebook postings have been collected in Make Someone Happy. She lives outside Chicago.

Elizabeth Berg's website

This bio was last updated on 11/14/2017. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Interview

Elizabeth Berg talks about her novel, The Story of Arthur Truluv and the joys of romance in old age.

Arthur and Maddy's unusual friendship is the heart of The Story of Arthur Truluv, and it's something that readers have been particularly drawn to. What is it that brings these quite dissimilar people together? Have you ever had a friendship with someone very different from you that greatly affected your life?

Both Maddy and Arthur are, however unconsciously, looking for a kind of love as a replacement for what they have lost—­or, in Maddy's case, never had. They accept each other as they are, a necessary component in any good friendship. I've always appreciated and enjoyed older people. As a nine-­year-­old, I once made a dear friend in a woman who was probably Arthur's age, and she spoke only German. She used to sit out on the back stoop and I would come over and visit with her and try to teach her English by showing her animals in my favorite book. Not much English got learned, and not much German, either, but we very much enjoyed each other. There was a great warmth that came from her to me, and vice versa.

Lucille finds love and happiness again when she reconnects with Frank. Do you think we ever get over our first loves? Is it ever too late in life to start over again...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Elizabeth Berg at BookBrowse
The Story of Arthur Truluv jacket The Dream Lover jacket Once Upon a Time, There Was You jacket The Last Time I Saw You jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Elizabeth Berg but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Christina Adam

    Christina Adam

    Christina Adam was born in 1947. Her award-winning stories appeared in many literary journals as well as The Atlantic Monthly and Cosmopolitan. Her work has been anthologized in Circle of Women: An Anthology of Contemporary ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Ordinary Life

    Try:
    Any Small Thing Can Save You
    by Christina Adam

  • Trezza Azzopardi

    Trezza Azzopardi

    Trezza Azzopardi was born in Cardiff, UK. She is a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at the University of East Anglia and is an external examiner for Creative and Cultural Studies at Norwich School of Art and Design.

    ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Never Change

    Try:
    Remember Me
    by Trezza Azzopardi

We recommend 38 similar authors


Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...
  • Book Jacket: The Wide Wide Sea
    The Wide Wide Sea
    by Hampton Sides
    By 1775, 48-year-old Captain James Cook had completed two highly successful voyages of discovery and...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed on and digested.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.