Random House, NY, 2000. ISBN 0375506039. Reviewed by Judith Helburn Posted on 04/06/2001 Fiction: Mainstream

Elizabeth Berg is not afraid to take on significant women's issues. In this, her latest book, she spins her magic around the emotional and painful topic of divorce. Samantha—Sam—knows. "You stare at the man you love and you are staring at nothing: He is gone before he is gone." So she takes in boarders to keep her house and she adjusts and readjusts to who and where she is without her man.

She drifts within her own ocean of indecision, inactivity, and self pity until "...I remove my wedding rings and put them in my jewelry box. So many others have done this. I am not the only one. I am not the only one. But here, I am the only one." And new life begins to stir. She rediscovers, with the help of loyal friends and kind new friends, that she is more than wife and mother. And as that self-discovery progresses, she sees others also as who they are rather than what they do.

A gentle, sweet book. Elizabeth Berg has given us another compassionate, rewarding gift.

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