Girlsound: Review: Night of Miracles

Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Many thanks to Netgalley, Random House and Elizabeth Berg for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.

I have always felt that if I could come back and live another life, I would choose to live that life in a small southern town. You know. The kind where everyone knows each other’s names and are up into each other’s business, where you find good people, salt of the earth and neighbours help each other out. The kind of town you can wander into, plunk down roots and watch the most beautiful sunset from your porch and later, on that porch, your friends will gather and someone will pull out a guitar, someone else the spoons and you’ll make music into the night. The Saturday afternoon movie version of what life would be like. Night of Miracles is set in that sort of town. As a quasi-sequel to Berg’s “The Story of Arthur Truluv”, this one can be read as a stand-alone, however, after you read it, you will want to pick up every one of her other books.

Berg writes beautifully, simple, clean. This isn’t the kind of literary fiction with language so flowery it can give you a headache. But she can make you feel as if you are right there, walking down main street or smelling Lucille’s cherry pie right out of the oven (check out the recipe below!). I wanted to don one of Lucille’s aprons, bake in a class with people who will become my friends, or stop in the diner for the usual, or teach with kids like Lincoln in my class. With a small cast of characters that you come to care about, life, with its ups and downs, is just a little better because you have people around to help you.

If you read Arthur Truluv, you will know most of the characters. The story centers around Lucille Howard, the elderly woman Arthur lived with, who is renting the house that Arthur left to Maddy. Maddy and her daughter Nola, are not central to the story, but we do get to follow up with her and see how she is doing. Lucille, a retired teacher, has been teaching baking classes from her home and they are becoming quite popular. She has been watching Lincoln, the next door neighbour’s kid , because Abby, the mother has just been diagnosed with leukaemia. Lucille is also trying to grow her baking classes and hires Iris to help her out. Iris has left her husband and was on her way to San Francisco, when she stopped in Mason and decided to stay. She becomes friends with Tiny, a big lug of a guy who taxi’s everyone around town. Tiny is in love with Monica, the waitress at the diner, but is too shy to make a move. Monica, who is also in love with Tiny, tried to make the first move and ask him out, but poor Tiny got so flustered he said no and now the two of them don’t know what to do with each other.

Trying to convey what this book is about by listing the characters and their sub-plot, is not doing any justice to the story. That is not what the book is really about. It is about people, who are quirky, odd, with strengths and flaws, who are just trying to get by, with every day’s challenge. How opening your heart to let people in, to lean on those around you, to be grateful for who you have in your life is what makes life worth living. It is about second chances, and how you have agency in how you live your life. It is about hope and how we all get a miracle. You’ll need tissues.

It is a great read, one of my favourites. The characters are ones you will want to spend time with. Her writing is seamless as she weaves the stories together. It is authentic and real.

-If you are interested, I have posted three of Lucille’s recipes on my blog. I will update my blog after I test out the recipes. If they are half as good as the book claims her baking to be - I’m in!