{"title":"Suzanne Berne","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the insightful and emotionally resonant novels of Suzanne Berne. From family dramas to mysteries, explore her compelling stories that capture the complexities of human relationships and suburban life. Start browsing now.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"crime-in-the-neighborhood-book-suzanne-berne-9780670879809","title":"A Crime in the Neighborhood","description":"When the murdered body of a local boy is found in the woods, suspicions transform young Marsha's once-secure neighbourhood. 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Living in a world no longer safe or familiar, Marsha turns increasingly to 'the book of evidence' in which she records the doings of the neighbors, especially of shy Mr Green next door. But as Marsha's confusion and her murder hunt accelerate, her 'facts' spread the damage cruelly and catastrophically throughout the neighborhood.   'It is impossible not to be completely swept along. Berne's vision is gently humorous, ironic, quirky, and she writes with such piercing sensitivity . . . a compelling debut novel' The Times    'Intensely evocative. I loved it' Observer  'The writing is marvellous . . . comparisons have been made between her and Anne Tyler and Harper Lee. 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If happiness had a home it would be here.  Then the first dog is poisoned. At first, there is shock and disbelief: who would commit such a cruel act - and why? As more dogs die, residents notice other signs that something's not right in their home: the appearance of menacing grafitti, the persistent triggering of fire alarms at the middle school and the haunted looks neighbours begin exchanging.  For the Downings, Margaret, Bill and daughter Julia, Littlefield's gathering darkness hints at flaws in their own lives. What is wrong? What can save them?  'Well-observed shrewd satire . . . sharp, funny and painful. Berne takes the domestic and turns it into the majestic'  Sunday Telegraph","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49601484718353,"sku":"GOR006071540","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50347245568273,"sku":"CIN0241962668G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50697010217233,"sku":"NGR9780241962664","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0241962668.jpg?v=1751429919"},{"product_id":"perfect-arrangement-book-suzanne-berne-9780670910809","title":"A Perfect Arrangement","description":"Mirella and Howard are floundering. Two careers, two troubled children, a dilapidated colonial house outside Boston. The exploding laundry, the dog getting into the trash again. Then along comes Randi, a dream of a nanny, who cooks, cleans and makes her own Play-Doh. Not only does she win over the children, the whole neighbourhood approves of her. But is Randi as wonderful as she seems? And what about Mirella and Howard's marriage - why does it suddenly seem to be unravelling? In this funny, sad, haunting novel, Suzanne Berne exposes the myth of the perfect domestic life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49610421109009,"sku":"GOR005284612","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50976642531601,"sku":"GOR006180019","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0670910805.jpg?v=1751433217"},{"product_id":"ghost-at-the-table-book-suzanne-berne-9781905490059","title":"The Ghost at the Table","description":"\"Going home for Thanksgiving wasn't something I had planned on...every year Frances asked me to come for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but every year for one reason or another, I said no. We both understood the effect we had on each other, only made worse by the holidays. Still, Frances felt she needed to invite me, just as I needed to refuse. In this way, we absolved each other. Or that's how it worked until one October day, over a year ago now, when Frances called to say that our father would be spending Thanksgiving with her, for the first time in a quarter of a century, and she literally begged me to fly to Boston...\" Markedly different since childhood, and leading very different lives now, Frances and Cynthia have nevertheless managed to remain \"devoted\" - so long as they stay on opposite coasts. But with the reappearance of their elderly, long-estranged father they find themselves reunited for a cold, snowy Thanksgiving week, during which sleeping tensions and old griefs reawaken. Frances, once the father's favourite, envisions a happy family holiday along with her husband and daughters in her lovely old New England farmhouse, while Cynthia, a writer of \"historical fiction for girls,\" doesn't understand how Frances can ignore the past their father's presence suddenly revives, a past that includes suspicions about their mother's death twenty-five years earlier and who was really to blame. Adding to Cynthia's uneasiness is her research for a book on Mark Twain's daughters, whose lives she thinks eerily mirror her own and Frances' - a point on which Frances eagerly agrees, but from the opposite perspective. As Thanksgiving day arrives, with a houseful of guests looking forward to dinner, the sisters continue to struggle with different versions of their shared past, until a warning issued by Cynthia's friend Carita, that \"Families are toxic, and blood is bloody,\" proves prophetically true. 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Highly recommended'  Daily Mail  'As astute in her observations of contemporary culture as she is in capturing the minutiae of longing, disappointment and loss' Sunday Times  Littlefield, Massachusetts, named one of the Ten Best Places to Live in America, full of psychologists and college professors, is proud of its fine schools, its girls' soccer teams, its leafy streets and quaint village centre.  Yet no sooner has sociologist Dr Clarice Watkins arrived in Littlefield to study the elements of 'good quality of life' than someone begins poisoning the town's dogs. Are the poisonings in protest to an off-leash proposal for Baldwin Park - the subject of much town debate - or the sign of a far deeper disorder?  The Dogs of Littlefield is a wry exploration of the discontent concealed behind the manicured lawns and picket fences of darkest suburbia.  'Berne takes the domestic and turns it into the majestic' Sunday Telegraph  'This funny novel explores the flaws of a perfect neighbourhood with a bizarre killer on the loose' Psychologies  Suzanne Berne's first novel, A Crime in the Neighbourhood, won the 1999 Orange Prize. She is also the author of A Perfect Arrangement, The Ghost at the Table and Missing Lucile. 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Are the poisonings in protest to an off-leash proposal for Baldwin Park--the subject of much town debate--or the sign of a far deeper disorder? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNothing sucks a reader in like psychological menace, and Suzanne Berne is a master of the craft. Her scenes are elegantly composed, and even throwaway characters jump off the page (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e). A wry exploration of the discontent concealed behind the manicured lawns and picket fences of darkest suburbia, \u003ci\u003eThe Dogs of Littlefield\u003c\/i\u003e explodes with comic exuberance and restrained beauty (\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49801107636497,"sku":"CIN1511335688VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1511335688.jpg?v=1750924890"},{"product_id":"missing-lucile-book-suzanne-berne-9781565126251","title":"Missing Lucile","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49940586725649,"sku":"CIN1565126254G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1565126254.jpg?v=1751276366"},{"product_id":"ghost-at-the-table-book-suzanne-berne-9781565125797","title":"The Ghost at the Table","description":"\u003cdiv\u003eStrikingly different since childhood and leading dissimilar lives now, sisters Frances and Cynthia have managed to remain \"devoted\"--as long as they stay on opposite coasts. 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Are the poisonings in protest to an off-leash proposal for Baldwin Park--the subject of much town debate--or the sign of a far deeper disorder? Certainly these types of things don't happen in Littlefield. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith an element of suspense, satirical social commentary, and in-depth character portraits, Suzanne Berne's nuanced novel reveals the discontent concealed behind the manicured lawns and picket fences of darkest suburbia. \u003ci\u003eThe Dogs of Littlefield\u003c\/i\u003e is a compelling, poignant yet unsentimental novel that examines life, love, and loss (\u003ci\u003eSunday Mirror\u003c\/i\u003e, UK).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50377876766993,"sku":"CIN1476794243VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50407004766481,"sku":"CIN1476794243G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1476794243.jpg?v=1751115775"},{"product_id":"perfect-arrangement-book-suzanne-berne-9781565122611","title":"A Perfect Arrangement","description":"\u003cdiv\u003eHandsome and ambitious, Mirella and Howard Cook-Goldman have it all-two precious children, dual careers, a great old colonial house on Massachusetts's North Shore, a golden retriever. 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When events force Mirella and Howard to reveal the secrets they've been hiding from each other, the family cataclysm catapults the nanny (who has secrets of her own) into a position of unnatural control.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eA Perfect Arrangement\u003c\/i\u003e, Suzanne Berne now fixes her sights on contemporary, two-career family life. Overscheduled and overwhelmed, today's parents are desperate for help. Whatever child care they manage to set up, the arrangements are rarely perfect. This suspenseful novel asks a question all of them face: \"Is there anyone you can trust with your children?\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50391412965649,"sku":"CIN1565122615G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B006KMV0UG.jpg?v=1751023125"},{"product_id":"ghost-at-the-table-book-suzanne-berne-9781565123342","title":"The Ghost at the Table","description":"Strikingly different since childhood and leading dissimilar lives now, sisters Frances and Cynthia have managed to remain devoted--as long as they stay on opposite coasts. When Frances arranges to host Thanksgiving at her idyllic New England farmhouse, she envisions a happy family reunion, one that will include the sisters' long-estranged father. Cynthia, however, doesn't understand how Frances can ignore the past their father's presence revives, a past that includes suspicions about their mother's death twenty-five years earlier. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e As Thanksgiving Day arrives, with a houseful of guests looking forward to dinner, the sisters continue to struggle with different versions of a shared past, their conflict escalating to a dramatic, suspenseful climax.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50391451173137,"sku":"CIN1565123344G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51123677856017,"sku":"GOR007889922","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51332424433937,"sku":"CIN1565123344A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51464996585745,"sku":"CIN1565123344VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1565123344.jpg?v=1750894558"},{"product_id":"dogs-of-littlefield-book-suzanne-berne-9781501124747","title":"The Dogs of Littlefield","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the Orange Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eA Crime in the Neighborhood\u003c\/i\u003e, Suzanne Berne's \u003ci\u003eThe Dogs of Littlefield \u003c\/i\u003eis sublime (\u003ci\u003eThe Chicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e), a suspenseful and hilarious \u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003esuburban comedy of manners par excellence (\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e) that explores the unease behind the manicured lawns of suburban America.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLittlefield, Massachusetts, named one of the Twenty Best Places to Live in America, is full of psychologists and college professors, proud of its fine schools, its girls' soccer teams, its leafy streets, and quaint village center. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eYet when sociologist Dr. Clarice Watkins arrived in Littlefield to study the elements of good quality of life someone begins poisoning the town's dogs. Are the poisonings in protest to an off-leash proposal for Baldwin Park--the subject of much town debate--or the sign of a far deeper disorder? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNothing sucks a reader in like psychological menace, and Suzanne Berne is a master of the craft. Her scenes are elegantly composed, and even throwaway characters jump off the page (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e). A wry exploration of the discontent concealed behind the manicured lawns and picket fences of darkest suburbia, \u003ci\u003eThe Dogs of Littlefield\u003c\/i\u003e explodes with comic exuberance and restrained beauty (\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50420790329617,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50420791476497,"sku":"CIN1501124749VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52106463707409,"sku":"CIN1501124749G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1501124749.jpg?v=1751307337"},{"product_id":"blue-window-book-suzanne-berne-9781476794273","title":"The Blue Window","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the Orange Prize­-winning author of \u003ci\u003eA Crime in the Neighborhood\u003c\/i\u003e comes a \"sharply witty\" and \"impeccably written\" (\u003ci\u003eStar Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e, Minneapolis) novel featuring a therapist attempting to unlock the most difficult cases of her life--those of her son and of her mother.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Anyone who's ever had trouble persuading a teenager or an elderly parent to \"open up\" will recognize Lorna's dilemma during the three days she finds herself alone in a remote lakeside cottage with her mutely miserable son and her impenetrable mother. Despite her training as a clinical social worker, and her arsenal of therapeutic techniques, she's resisted at every turn as she tries to understand what's made the two people most important to her go silent.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Though silence has always marked Lorna's family. Her father was deaf. Her mother, Marika, abandoned Lorna and her brother when they were children. No explanation was ever offered. Nor why Marika resurfaced eighteen years ago to invite Lorna and her infant son, Adam, to Vermont for a strained reunion. A relationship, of sorts, has followed--an annual Thanksgiving visit, during which Marika sits taciturnly among the guests at Lorna's table, agreeing only to \"be seen to exist.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e But now it's Adam who won't talk. Home from college and suffering over something he won't disclose, he's so depressed that he refers to himself as \"A\" for \"Anti-Matter.\" So, when she's summoned to Vermont because Marika has had a fall, Lorna sees an opportunity to get Adam out of the house and maybe also a chance to finally connect with her mother. What she never anticipated was that grandson and grandmother would form a bond, and leave her out of it.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e How do you care for people you can't understand, and who don't want to be understood?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Suspenseful, poignantly funny, and beautifully incisive, \u003ci\u003eThe Blue Window\u003c\/i\u003e explores the ways people misperceive each other, and how secrets and silence, wielded and guarded, exert their power over families--and what luminous, frightening, and tender possibilities might come forth, once those secrets are challenged.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Suzanne Berne is an elegant, psychologically astute novelist\" (Tom Perrotta), whose new book reveals what happens to people who hide from themselves, and the act of imagination it takes to find them.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51028521287953,"sku":"NIN9781476794273","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51322806206737,"sku":"CIN1476794278G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1476794278.jpg?v=1751306145"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-suzanne-berne.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}