This novel of Women’s Fiction is a
continuation of a heartwarming series by Elizabeth Berg that started with,
The
Story of Arthur Truluv.
A group of women form an unlikely bond of trust that allows them
to share personal revelations.
When a participant in a local dining club in Mason, Mo., reveals
a personal secret over dinner, the gathering is suddenly transformed into a
"safe space": members of the group share not only a weekly feast, but
begin to confess dilemmas from their private lives. Elizabeth Berg's
illuminating novel The Confession Club brings together a small group of
women--ages 20 to their 70s--who maintain an oath of confidentiality as they
voice their sins, burdens, inadequacies and shameful secrets, offering each
other opinions and advice without judgment. Among the members are a preacher's
wife, who is a kleptomaniac; a woman remorseful over the way she chronically
lied to her parents during adolescence; and another who finds herself attracted
to an exhibitionist.
New additions to the group include some beloved characters from
Berg's prior novels, including Iris Winters, from Night of Miracles, a divorcée who runs a baking school out
of her home. She falls for a handsome, bright, high-functioning--yet
homeless--Vietnam veteran with PTSD. And Maddy Harris, introduced in The Story of Arthur Truluv, is a married mother who
returns to town to regroup and reconcile feelings from the past that prohibit
her from sharing her soul with her husband.
Readers don't need to be familiar with Berg's prior books in the
Mason series to enjoy this one--a tenderhearted, at times philosophical,
patchwork quilt of stories. Berg extols the benefits of these unlikely people
forming a bond and a community of trust and friendship that changes their lives
for the better.
The Confession Club: A Novel (Book 3 of 3 in the Mason Series) by Elizabeth Berg
Random House, $26.00 Hardcover, 9781984855176, 304 pages
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
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NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted
with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (January 10, 2020), link HERE