Let's welcome Elizabeth Berg to Center Stage!
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About the Author:
Elizabeth Berg made her mark as a promising writer with the publication of her first novel,
Durable Goods (1993), the story of
Katie, a 12-year-old girl reeling from her mother's death while her abusive father drags her from town to town. The book, like Katie, was tough but tender, and
the American Library Association named it a Best Book of the Year.
Since then, Berg has written subsequent novels, most of them, like Durable Goods, sincere, unpretentious, somewhat sentimental, and focused on an event
that changes a woman's life. In Joy School
(1997), a continuation of Katie's story, the crucible is her first taste of romance; in
What We Keep (1998), it's a girl's
abandonment by her mother; in
Until the Real Thing
Comes Along (1999), it's a woman's love for a gay man. All are grounded in the realistic minutiae of family life: irksome marriages, tempestuous parent-child
relationships, love, betrayal, and resolution.
Berg's readers appreciate her fine powers of observation and honest descriptions. Some feel her command of authentic details is on best display in her medically-themed
titles. Before she became a full-time writer, Berg was a registered nurse, where she accumulated an endless store of observations related to sickness, healing, and
the emotional toll that health crises take on people. These topics, naturally, find a voice in her novels.
Message Edited by Jessica on 04-11-2008 12:02 PM
