This is longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2014. Littlefield, Massachusetts: home to psychologists, college professors and their over-achieving children, and recently lauded as one of the Ten Best Places to Live in America. If happiness had a home it would be here. Then the first dog is poisoned. At first, there is shock and disbelief: who would commit such a cruel act - and why? As more dogs die, residents notice other signs that something's not right in their home: the appearance of menacing grafitti, the persistent triggering of fire alarms at the middle school and the haunted looks neighbours begin exchanging. For the Downings, Margaret, Bill and daughter Julia, Littlefield's gathering darkness hints at flaws in their own lives. What is wrong? What can save them? Well-observed shrewd satire ...sharp, funny and painful. Berne takes the domestic and turns it into the majestic . (Sunday Telegraph).
'A beautifully balanced and accomplished portrayal of the glue that binds families together, despite themselves, as well as the forces that tear them asunder. Superb'
Mail on Sunday on The Ghost at the Table
'It is impossible not to be completely swept along ... Berne's vision is gently humorous, ironic, quirky ... and she writes with such piercing sensitivity ... a compelling debut novel' The Times on A Crime in the Neighbourhood
'This ambitious account of a sudden coming of age reminded me strongly of To Kill A Mockingbird - and is very bit as moving and satisfying'
Daily Telegraph on A Crime in the Neighbourhood
Author
About Suzanne Berne
Suzanne Berne was born in Washington, D.C., and now lives with her family outside Boston. She is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and her fiction and essays have also appeared in a number of magazines. Her first novel, A Crime in the Neighbourhood won the 1999 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her latest novel is The Ghost at the Table.
