RAINY DAY EXCERPTS: “THE STORY OF ARTHUR TRULUV”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by The Purple Booker.

Today’s feature is a NetGalley ARC that will be released on November 21:  The Story of Arthur Truluv, by Elizabeth Berg, an emotionally powerful novel about three people who each lose the one they love most, only to find second chances where they least expect them…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intro:  In the six months since the November day that his wife, Nola, was buried, Arthur Moses has been having lunch with her every day.  He rides the bus to the cemetery and when he gets there, he takes his sweet time walking over to her plot:  she will be there no matter when he arrives.  She will be there and be there and be there.

Today he lingers near the headstone of Adelaide Marsh, two rows over from Nola, ten markers down.  Adelaide was born April 3, 1897, died November 18, 1929.  Arthur does the math, slowly.  Thirty-two.  Then he calculates again, because he thinks it would be wrong to stand near someone’s grave thinking about how old they were the day they died and be off by a year.  Or more.  Math has always been difficult for Arthur, even on paper; he describes himself as numerically illiterate.  Nola did the checkbook, but now he does.  He tries, anyway; he gets out his giant-size calculator and pays a great deal of attention to what he’s doing, he doesn’t even keep the radio on, but more often than not he ends up with astronomically improbable sums…

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Teaser:  He coughs, coughs, coughs, all the way to the bus stop.  He’s going to have to go see that robber, Dr. Greenbaum.  Get some antibiotics.  Something.  Sometimes Arthur forgets how old he is.  Sometimes he remembers all too well. (45%).

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Synopsis:  For the past six months, Arthur Moses’s days have looked the same: He tends to his rose garden and to Gordon, his cat, then rides the bus to the cemetery to visit his beloved late wife for lunch. The last thing Arthur would imagine is for one unlikely encounter to utterly transform his life. 

Eighteen-year-old Maddy Harris is an introspective girl who visits the cemetery to escape the other kids at school. One afternoon she joins Arthur—a gesture that begins a surprising friendship between two lonely souls. Moved by Arthur’s kindness and devotion, Maddy gives him the nickname “Truluv.” As Arthur’s neighbor Lucille moves into their orbit, the unlikely trio band together and, through heartache and hardships, help one another rediscover their own potential to start anew.

Wonderfully written and full of profound observations about life, The Story of Arthur Truluv is a beautiful and moving novel of compassion in the face of loss, of the small acts that turn friends into family, and of the possibilities to achieve happiness at any age.

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What do you think?  Does it resonate with you?  Would you keep reading?

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