The Year of Pleasures

When Bretta Nolan's husband dies, she honours a promise she made to him to move to a small town and start a new life. Without minimizing her great sorrow, she nevertheless attempts to find pleasure on a daily basis. The "Year of Pleasures" is about deliberately acknowledging the solace found in ordinary things: a warm bath, good food, the beauty of nature, music and art. Above all, it is about the various kindnesses people can, and do, offer one another. 'Elizabeth Berg writes with humour and a big heartabout resilience, loneliness, love and hope. And the transcendence that redeems.' - Andre Dubus II. This is the stunning new novel from the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Open House and Never Change". Praise for Elizabeth Berg: 'Berg oozes warmth, wisdom and generosity of spirit. Her writing is quite brilliant, as soft as a kiss, as sharp as a knife. An American Maeve Binchy, a modern-day Jane Austen, whatever praise you heap on Elizabeth Berg, she probably deserves it.' - Anna Maxted. 'Berg knows her characters intimately - she gets under their skin and leaves the reader with an indelible impression of lives challenged and changed.' - "The Seattle Times". 'Heartwrenching-Hilarious-Berg sits somewhere between Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman.' - "Chicago Sun-Times". 'Maybe Freud didn't know the answer to what women want, but Elizabeth Berg certainly does.' - "USA Today".