Earth's the Right Place for Love
A Novel
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- $199.00
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- $199.00
Descripción editorial
This beautiful novel by the beloved author of Open House and Talk Before Sleep tells the story of two young people growing up in Mason, Missouri, and how Arthur Moses, a shy young man, becomes the wise and compassionate person readers loved in The Story of Arthur Truluv.
“A poignant tale of love, grief, and the resiliency of the human spirit.”—Kirkus Reviews
A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Nola McCollum is the most desirable girl in Arthur Moses’s class, and he is thrilled when they become friends. But Arthur wants far more than friendship. Unfortunately, Nola has a crush on the wrong Moses—Arthur’s older brother, Frank, who is busy pursuing his own love interest and avoiding the boys’ father, a war veteran with a drinking problem and a penchant for starting fights. When a sudden tragedy rocks the family’s world, Arthur struggles to come to terms with his grief. In the end, it is nature that helps him to understand how to go beyond loss and create a life of forgiveness and empathy. But what can he do about Nola, who seems confused about what she wants in life and only half aware of the one who loves her most?
Full of unforgettable characters and written with Elizabeth Berg’s characteristic warmth, humor, and insight into people, Earth’s the Right Place for Love is about the power of kindness, character, and family, and how love can grow when you least expect it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Berg revisits the protagonist of her 2017 novel The Story of Arthur Truluv with this gentle coming-of-age. In 1947 Missouri, 16-year-old Arthur Moses has a crush on Nola McCollum, but she has her eyes on Arthur's older brother, Frank, a high school senior. Frank, though, has been secretly dating the new, young English teacher Mary Anker. He also bears the brunt of their father, Eugene's rages, sparked partly by Eugene's frustration over his declining milk delivery business. Taking advice from Frank, Arthur works up the nerve to ask Nola to the movies, only to have their date called off when a tornado rips through town. More complications, including another boy swooping in to take credit for Arthur's gift of flowers, stymie him further. Frank, meanwhile, learns Mary is pregnant, upending his hopes of becoming a writer. The stakes generally feel pretty low—Berg homes in on the family's everyday moments, as Arthur picks up wisdom from older neighbors and Eugene lands a new job—so when a freak accident involving Frank arrives, it feels a bit jarring. Still, Berg does a nice job tending to the slow-burn romance between Arthur and Nola, which readers of the earlier book know will lead to a lifelong marriage. The author's fans ought to be satisfied.
