It's been quite a while since I've read an Elizabeth Berg novel. This one reminded me of why I enjoy her so much and why it shouldn't be so long in between next time. I liked all of these characters.

Free e-copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Every day Arthur has lunch at his wife's grave, and visits other headstones to imagine the lives of the other deceased. He notices a high school student, Maddy, who also visits the cemetery most days (while she should be in school), and eventually they become good friends. Maddy's life is moving at a fast pace, first a break-up with her boyfriend, then the discovery that she is pregnant, then moving out of her distant father's house, and then moving in with Arthur to be his housekeeper. The third member of the unlikely trio of friends is Lucille, Arthur's prickly neighbor. Although this novel may be rather predictable, Berg has created believable characters for us to care about, and a heartwarming story of resilience and kindness in the face of real hardship.

I've loved Elizabeth Berg for years and this story did not disappoint. There are 3 characters, Arthur, Maddie and Lucille. They are each lonely in their own way. Rather than tucking in and "minding their own business" they all step up and help each other. It's just a beautifully woven story of what family really means.

Elizabeth Berg's books resonate with people of all ages. She often writes abut circumstances that alter one's chosen path and unexpected possibilities that offer something better in life. She has insight that few share and can express. Berg made me laugh, cry, and wish for more. Her unassuming characters form a friendship that when it exists, it's to be treasured and valued. In the Acknowledgements, Berg writes about sending the manuscript to a friend with the hope that she "gets" it. I got it, loved it and will recommend it to friends.

4.5--hovering but...

This short book is a sweet, sad, moving story about three people [primarily two--Arthur and Maddy] who make new lives for themselves by opening up to each other.

Arthur, (re)named Truluv, by Maddy, is an 85-year old widower. Maddy, a loner, ostracized at school, is an 18-year old pregnant teen. She lives with her dad, a widower, who rarely talks.

Arthur goes to the cemetery every day to visit Nola, his deceased wife. He brings his lunch, talks to Nola, and imagines the lives of the other people buried there. He meets Maddy at the cemetery and gradually they become friends.

Lucille, Arthur's neighbor, is a retired teacher; a lonely woman who loves to bake. Her story is separate from Arthur's and Maddy's--until it is not. I liked the before; I loved the after. When Lucille enters Arthur and Maddy's newly-formed household it is quite the home.

And Gordon, Arthur's cat, has his own persona--which also often was humorous.

Some of the lines brought a smile to my face. For example--Maddy has a nose ring which Arthur notes is "... hanging out the bottom like a booger." Lucille's snoring is described as "[she]... could be her own percussion section in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra." And, Maddy sees her father as "constant bad weather."

This book reminded me of Plainsong [whch I also liked a lot]--where two elderly men take in a pregnant teen.

I was engaged immediately. Why? Perhaps because I liked the characters and felt them all well drawn. At times predictable, my interest never waned. Complaint: too short! Heartwarming, bittersweet, a good read!

Sweet story! Elderly Arthur visits his wife's grave every day and one day he meets Maddy, a high school senior, at the cemetery where she is exercising her love of photography with the headstones. The pair strike an interesting friendship that heals them of their sorrows. Beautiful novel about old and young and the story of people's lives who live short or long. Berg never fails me as a writer.

Berg's talented writing rescues a cliched story of a lonely widower coming slowly to life with the help of a quirky teenager dealing with her own loneliness. The characters come to life but the plot has been done too many times before.

Thoroughly enjoyed this story of a young girl and an elderly man who find each other in a cemetery and in doing so find a family. Elizabeth Berg at her best!

I loved, loved, loved this book. Elizabeth Berg is such an amazingly talented writer. She has a quiet way with her words and in a few simple phrases can lay open your heart. I laughed and cried reading The Story of Arthur Truluv and I am so grateful that Elizabeth Berg is in the world and sharing her talents with us!

5 stars

What a delightful and charming book!

Arthur Moses who lost his wife just six months earlier and visits her grave every lunchtime, Maddy Harris a lonely and confused teenager and Lucile Arthur’s neighbor who is a little nosey all meet in this charming novel.

Drawn together by loss and a special kind of friendship and love, these three people form the center of our story. They help one another through hardship and the loss of loved ones and together they make a new start in life – for the better.

This is a remarkable novel about three of the best kinds of friends. It is written with tenderness, nostalgia and a measure of pain. It is very well written and plotted. It moves along very nicely and tells a wonderful story.

I want to send a big thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group/Random House for forwarding to me a copy of this most remarkable book to read.

Oh the feels! This book just flew by, and it gave me all the feels. Arthur Moses is just a sweet old man who loves his wife even though she passed away and finds joy in so many things. Maddie needs a family and found it with Arthur and Lucille, Arthur's elderly neighbor who needed them even though she didn't realize it. This book was sweet, but showed that life is hard. However, looking for the good in life makes it worth living.

I was given this book in exchange for an honest review by Netgalley and the publisher.

Arthur 'Truluv' is a prince of a man, faithfully remembering his wife by visiting her grave and talking to her daily. His friendship towards poor, troubled Maddy is an extension of his kind self, recognizing a need in another lonely person. There are some funny, quirky moments in this tragically edged story, full of humanness and struggle. Arthur's influence on others makes me want to be a better person, show more compassion, give more grace, That alone made this a worthy read for me.
(The foul language and sexual content were a detraction, and would be a better read without it.)

Arthur Sinclair a widower meets Maddy an unhappy, troubled teen while visiting his wife in the cemetery. They eventually warm to each other. . He offers her a room. Eventually the widow lady across the street becomes part of their circle. The three of them rub along together helping each other through thick and thin. The Story of Arthur Truluv ranks right up there with A Man Called Ove for being a heart-warming book. How does he get the name Truluv? I leave that for you to discover as you read the book.. This book is definitely a keeper.. Readers will not be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this novel! I felt it took a good look at life and death but was also very happy throughout. I loved Arthur and Maddy and how their relationship blossomed. I loved that Arthur still visit his late wife Nola everyday. I think both Arthur and Lucille were able to help Maddy deal with the death or her mother in a new way by showing her how they worked through their own grief and sorrows. They both did it with a positive light. Arthur still believed that life was worth living and Lucille turned her sorrow into creating something good by helping teach others to bake.
This was a heartfelt novel that made me laugh and just made me happy. Elizabeth Berg has a way with words and making you fall for her characters.

A beautiful story! Three people have endured heartache an loss, and now find love and open their hearts to become a family.
This quote from the book sums it up.
"What is it that makes a family? Certainly no document does, no legal pronouncement or accident of birth. No,, real families come from choices we make about who we want to be bound to, and the ties to such families live in our hearts."
A lesson that we each could learn.

What a beautiful book. We all need an Arthur in our lives.

What makes a family? Is it the people we are born to, or the people we are drawn to? While it can certainly be both, for Arthur, Maddy and Lucille their unlikely friendship develops into a bond that none of them could have foreseen.. Each had their own particular loneliness. Arthur missed his late wife and visited her grave daily. Lucille, who never married, is reunited with her one love, on,y to have him die. Maddy doesn't know why her classmates treat her so poorly. She thinks she knows why her father distances himself emotionally, but it hurts nevertheless. Arthur, Maddy and Lucille are drawn together and create a family of their own.

For six months Arthur Moses has packed a bag lunch and taken a bus to the cemetery to eat lunch with his wife Nola. He stops to visit her neighbors, reading their headstones and imagining the lives they had lived when alive.

At Nola's graveside, Arthur sets up his folding chair and eats his sandwich.

Arthur is eighty-five years old. His doctor congratulations him; he could live to be one hundred. It would be an empty life, now Nola Corrine the Beauty Queen is gone.

But on this spring day when the buds 'are all like tiny little pregnant women' and Arthur wishes Nola, like spring, would return again, even as a new born baby, Arthur notices he is not alone with his dead.

A teenage girl, who should be in school, is sitting under a tree. He has seen her before. This time, he waves. Her hand flies to her mouth, and thinking he has frightened her, Arthur leaves.

Maddy watches the old man walk to the bus. She is comforted by the graveyard. In life, she is a loner, a loser, a motherless girl with a distant father. She likes to take photographs of little things, blown up big. She sneaks out of the house at night to meet a handsome older boy. They don't talk much.

Arthur befriends Maddy, changing both their lives.

The Story of Arthur Truluv probes the depth of loneliness and depression in the elderly and the young, bringing disparate characters into clear focus, revealing their common humanity and mutual need.

Arthur's untapped capacity for love expands and embraces Maddy, and then his cranky elderly neighbor Lucille.

Named Truluv by Maddy, Arthur embodies true love not only for his lost Nola but also for the lost Maddy and unloved Lucille.

This charming, quiet novel will appeal to many readers. At first, though, I wondered what made it different? What made it worth reading over other books about friendship between the old and young or between the elderly?

In the Acknowledgements, Elizabeth Berg says, "When you write a novel as delicate as this one seemed to me to be, you can only hope that readers will see beyond the simple words on the page to the more complex meanings behind them."

And it hit me. This story is a kind of parable.

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
“Who is my neighbor?”
Love your neighbor. And who is my neighbor? My neighbor is any person God has put in my path.

This gentle story reminds us to love one another. The cranky, the misfits, the girl with the nose ring, the ineffectual father, the unborn--and ourselves.

Can we ever hear this message enough? It is today as revolutionary as it was millennium ago, going against common sense and financial sense, even against this administration's governmental goals.

Our inability to love one another is the greatest threat to democracy today. We have cut ourselves off, categorizing our fellow human companions on this small planet as 'other', inferior, contemptible, unnecessary, mistaken and misguided.

Who should we love? The Parable of the Good Samaritan is not about helping those who are like us, supporting people of our ilk, class, race, faith. We are to love whoever God puts into our path. Right there, next door to us, the person mourning at the cemetery across from us, even the person who has caused another to feel unloved and rejected. We are to love the stranger, those who grieve, those who are angry, those who have been rejected, those who are warped, and those who cannot love themselves.

Arthur Truluv's example teaches us that by our acts we can impact the world for generations. Love your neighbor as yourself. If each of us resists the world's wisdom by this radical act, what a wonderful world it would be.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

A sweet touching story about love, loss and the people who are family by circumstance rather than birth. The characters, especially Arthur, are memorable. The only thing I would have liked was more build up of the early relationship of Arthur and Maddy. The lack of this made the story less fluid and believable. But it was forgivable. If you take that leap, it is a nice story.