Recommended for the evocative and touching relationships that tell the story of Arthur and those he cares for. The gritty experiences of the teen he meets and the sad life of Arthur's neighbor make his quiet and gentle intervention priceless. Arthur is more than the humble "audience" that he claims to be: He is the foundation that supports those he engages with.

A comparison to A Man Called Ove by Backman is unavoidable, and Arthur Truluv is a smoother, lighter version. But Berg's book is short, and the pleasure sincere. There's good reason for the attention the title is garnering.

Thank you for my ARC. This is a story of a young girl that loses her mother before she could even know her. Her dad doesn't know how to have a relationship with his daughter since his wife died, so the girl finds love in the worst of places. Except for the time she meets Arthur. An old man that visits his wife at the cemetery. It is a sweet story. Towards the end you think something big is going to happen, but nothing every really does. I loved Arthur and most especially Priscilla. If it weren't for their characters I probably wouldn't have liked the book at all. They are endearing. I only recommend picking this one up if you like old, cute people and if you have nothing exciting to read.

Elizabeth Berg has a gift for creating warm, quirky, flawed characters that feel real even as the tale she spins around them has a whiff of the fanciful. The Story of Arthur Truluv is about compassion, forgiveness, and the importance of taking care of each other -- it's the story I needed to read right now!

I loved this book! What an uplifting story of lonely people coming together. I loved the crossover of ages and the power of the family we chose. You will love this story!

Every now and then I need to take a break from the mysteries and find something that reminds me how sweet life can be. This book fits the bill. Arthur is an 85 year old widow who visits his wife’s cemetery plot every day for lunch. There, he meets Maddy, a 17 year old who is unpopular and doesn’t have much of a family life. Lucille is Arthur’s elderly neighbor who has never been married.

Berg does a wonderful job capturing the pain of bullying. My heart just went out to Maddy. “She wonders what her funeral would be like...what would her father say? If he were honest, he’d say just four words: I never knew her.”

The book has elements in common with Our Souls at Night, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine or A Man Called Ove. I think if you liked any of them, you will also enjoy this book. It’s all about how we can find our families through happenstance, luck or just next door. It’s a lovely book. In the acknowledgements, Berg quotes her editor as saying she needs an Arthur in her life and Berg responds, me, too. Well, we all do!

My thanks to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Loved this book and these characters! Truluv made me miss my mom and dad who both passed away this summer, but that's another true love story.

If you haven't read Elizabeth Berg before, this is a good place to start. She has a knack for writing heartfelt thoughtful stories of people who are coping with life the best way they can. In this case, Arthur, who so desperately misses his late wife that he eats lunch at her grave every day, bonds in ways he didn't expect with Maddy, a teen with all the teen problems and more. Add in Lucille, Arthur's neighbor, and you'll see that these three form a small but important family. This is a soft, lovely read which won't surprise you but will make you smile. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is the perfect book for these difficult days.

This was the first Elizabeth Berg book I’ve read and it won’t be the last! I truly enjoyed this heartfelt story of the genial widower Arthur Moses, teenage outcast Mandy and his perpetually single neighbor Lucille. The story brings together three lonely and friendless people in a serendipitous way. They all need something and find it in each other’s company. Arthur is a dear, thoughtful gentle man and I fell in love with his devotion to his wife. Mandy has some hard lessons to learn and she makes some important changes. Lucille is a baker and busybody and loud. She was a colorful and nurturing addition to their trio.
I received an advance review copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

What constitutes a family? Is it a mother, father, sister(s), brother(s), a cat, dog? Maybe, or perhaps it is people, who have no connection other then they discover that they care and need each other. Arthur (Truluv) Moses is a widower who misses his wife and honors her by visiting her grave every day. Lillian is a next-door neighbor who tends to be overly curious and very lonely. Maddy is a bright, neglected teenager, raised by a father who can’t communicate his love. They become the best definition of family.

Sweet, sensitive, humorous, insightful, poignant, just a wonderful book.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for an ARC.

Charming story about Arthur, Lucille, and Maddy and how they come together to form their own definition of family. Loved it!

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley.

While this story is totally predictable, it is heartwarming to see people of vastly different age groups connect and comfort each other. The three main characters experienced losses and emptiness in their lives, but circumstances brought them together in mutual support. This is a short (240 page) book that will stay with you for a long time.

This book was very entertaining. I love the characters. They were all verydifferent but distinct. I like how their live were woven together. I like this author and I was not disappointed.

I loved this book! Arthur was so wise in so many ways, and I felt as if I knew him. The author wrote so that you were invested in every character and you cried and laughed along with them. As someone who has lost a spouse, I could relate to so much of what was said. This was a beautiful book that I highly recommend.

I found this book to be delightfully different. The characters are well defined and their point of view is very clear. Arthur is a widower who brings his lunch to the cemetery daily to visit his wife, Nola. Lucille is his nosy neighbor who is a retired teacher, wonderful baker but quite lonely. Maddy is an eighteen year old who lost her mother and lives with her father who doesn’t really understand her. She’s not typical of most of the kids her age. She spends a lot of time at the cemetery as well and eventually meets Arthur. How these characters connect makes a wonderful heartwarming story. It makes you think about what truly makes a family. I highly recommend this book.

The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg was a fantastic read. The story was not in a rush to be told, but one that meandered around, much like Arthur did in the cemetery but each step brought you closer to the storyline and people. Arthur’s wife has died. He visits her daily at the cemetery and shares his lunch and chats. He visits other graves and can envision what their lives are like. Some days he stops and chats with his neighbor Lucille and sits on her porch for a while. One day Arthur meets another lonely soul, Maddy and and they slowly offer each other hope and strength and then Lucille joins them and a family is born.

One of my favorite parts of the book is when Maddy shares with Lucille what makes a family. The story quietly fills the spaces in a life and grows outward. I love the way Elizabeth Berg draws out the characters so finely etched to make the pictures in your mind. Her understanding of people and how they are so different yet all needing the some things is universal.The Story of Arthur Truluv is beautiful.

4.5 Stars! This is a heartwarming book about 3 lonely people that find comfort in each other. Arthur's laid-back and thoughtful personality is what we all need. This is a short book that is a refreshing but thoughtful read and reminds us to be more like Arthur. The character development of Maddy was great, and poor Lucille as well. I think that the patiences that Arthur showed and the insight into understanding others was so well done. The nose ring reminds us that he can't fully relate to a teenager, but that he still adored Maddy. I understand why the father's role was written as it was for the book, but I loved how it all worked out and the importance of the phone calls. Thanks to Random House publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

An emotionally powerful and moving novel about people who are struggling with loss but who ultimately manage to find second chances. Arthur Moses visits the cemetery every day to join his late wife for lunch. It’s a quiet and resigned existence. The one day he spots someone else in the cemetery who also goes there to find solace, a young teenager called Maddy Harris. An unlikely friendship grows up between the two as Arthur reaches out to the troubled girl. I don’t pretend that this isn’t a pretty sentimental, even slushy, novel, but nevertheless I found is so warm-hearted and gentle that I allowed myself to sink into it and I easily put my critical faculties to one side. Charming and tender, it’s a real feel-good tale, and I loved it.

This was a wonderful story about Family and what Family is. I loved the characters!

This is the book you pick up after you have read a dark creepy mystery, or a psychologically disturbing thriller, or a heart-wrenching non-fiction book. At times, I wondered if this book was a bit too saccharine, but then I realized that yes, sometimes we need hope, hope that a storybook ending truly exists, hope that other people are willing to care about strangers, and hope that the future will be better. In this new novel by veteran author Elizabeth Berg, Maddy is a young girl with a past history of loss and sadness. Motherless since infancy, with a father whose pain goes deeper than his desire to be a father, Maddy has attached herself to a rather feckless fellow who leaves her pregnant and questioning her choices. Enter Arthur and Lucille, two elderly neighbors who see a girl who needs a hand up. This book will make you laugh out loud at these two hilarious characters, especially Lucille who just doesn't 'get it' quite frequently. And Arthur? Oh, you would want him for your next door neighbor or grandfather; what a lovely human being. So yes, a bit overly sweet at times but don't we all need that in our lives? Nothing wrong with a book where your heart is warm and tender at the end:)

This isn't my usual reading fare. Normally this is the sort of book I'd actively stay away from. This is a quaint upbeat and positive sort of thing, this is too cute, too lovely, too unrealistic...and yet there it was on Netgalley and I do like stories about the elderly, particularly since the recent generations have ended up so tedious, so I thought I'd check it out and ended up pleasantly surprised. This one was actually just cute enough, never quite tipping over into obnoxiously adorable. Sure, the concept of an old man with infinite patience, kindness and love/resources to share appearing just at the right time in a young woman's life to set her straight on the path to success/good life, etc. is somewhat magical, but how nice would it be if life actually worked out like that. Now, at least, I can see the appeal of this sort of fiction...it's basically a fantasy, a dream of a nicer kinder existence manifested one or two magical characters at a time, something to get away into to avoid the real world for a while. I can't imagine anyone naïve enough to actually set their expectations by stories like that, although maybe it's a sort of aspirational thing. Wouldn't it be lovely if things worked out just like they do in books like this. Never read any other books by Berg, but she seems to have her writing fine tuned to evoke just the right amount of emotions without being overtly lachrymose or eye rollingly melodramatic, it's actually all quite charming. She's also smart enough to make it brief, a longer page count would have potentially made the story into a Lifetime movie weeper of the week, but at 240 it's just right, short and sweet, very sweet, but immensely likeable. Thanks Netgalley.