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Once Upon a Time, There Was You: A Novel
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)

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Published:
Books on Tape 2011
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of Home Safe and The Last Time I Saw You comes a beautiful and moving novel about a man and woman, long divorced, who rediscover the power of love and family in the midst of an unthinkable crisis. 
Even on their wedding day, John and Irene sensed that they were about to make a mistake. Years later, divorced, dating other people, and living in different parts of the country, they seem to have nothing in common—nothing except the most important person in each of their lives: Sadie, their spirited eighteen-year-old  daughter. Feeling smothered by Irene and distanced from John, Sadie is growing more and more attached to her new boyfriend, Ron.
When tragedy strikes, Irene and John come together to support the daughter they love so dearly. What takes longer is to remember how they really feel about each other.
Elizabeth Berg has once again created characters who embody the many shades of the human spirit. Reading Berg’s fiction allows us to reflect on our deepest emotions, and her gifts as a writer make Once Upon a Time, There Was You a wonderful novel about the power of love, the unshakeable bonds of family, and the beauty of second chances.
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Format:
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen
Edition:
Unabridged
Street Date:
04/05/2011
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780307713810
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Elizabeth Berg. (2011). Once Upon a Time, There Was You: A Novel. Unabridged Books on Tape.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Elizabeth Berg. 2011. Once Upon a Time, There Was You: A Novel. Books on Tape.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Elizabeth Berg, Once Upon a Time, There Was You: A Novel. Books on Tape, 2011.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Elizabeth Berg. Once Upon a Time, There Was You: A Novel. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2011.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
LibraryOwnedAvailable
Shared Digital Collection22
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Grouped Work ID:
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Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jul 09, 2018 10:23:40
Date Updated:
Dec 07, 2020 19:11:44
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 24, 2024 11:48:56
Last Metadata Change:
Jun 05, 2023 01:42:40
Last Availability Check:
Mar 24, 2024 11:49:00
Last Availability Change:
Feb 29, 2024 11:27:34
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Mar 28, 2024 02:11:39

OverDrive Product Record

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Once Upon a Time, There Was You
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From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of Home Safe and The Last Time I Saw You comes a beautiful and moving novel about a man and woman, long divorced, who rediscover the power of love and family in the midst of an unthinkable crisis. 
Even on their wedding day, John and Irene sensed that they were about to make a mistake. Years later, divorced, dating other people, and living in different parts of the country, they seem to have nothing in common—nothing except the most important person in each of their lives: Sadie, their spirited eighteen-year-old  daughter. Feeling smothered by Irene and distanced from John, Sadie is growing more and more attached to her new boyfriend, Ron.
When tragedy strikes, Irene and John come together to support the daughter they love so dearly. What takes longer is to remember how they really feel about each other.
Elizabeth Berg has once again created characters who embody the many shades of the human spirit. Reading Berg’s fiction allows us to reflect on our deepest emotions, and her gifts as a writer make Once Upon a Time, There Was You a wonderful novel about the power of love, the unshakeable bonds of family, and the beauty of second chances.
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: Chicago Sun-Times, about The Last Time I Saw You
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        Praise for Elizabeth Berg

        "[Berg] has a knack for taking you right into the soul of her characters, as they respond to joy and tragedy in a perfectly imperfect way."

      • premium: False
      • source: The Charlottesville Observer, about Talk Before Sleep
      • content:
        "Truth rings clearly from every page. Berg captures the way women think--and especially the way they talk to other women--as well as any writer I can think of."
      • premium: False
      • source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, about Ordinary Life
      • content:
        "Lyrical from start to finish . . . Shaped by Berg's artistic talents, these stories of ordinary people in ordinary situations are anything but ordinary."
      • premium: False
      • source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, about Until the Real Thing Comes Along
      • content: "Berg writes with humor and understanding about matters of the heart."
      • premium: False
      • source: Booklist
      • content:
        "An enchanting and empathic storyteller, Berg delights in the eccentricities that shape complex personalities and excels in decoding the chemistry and paradoxes of relationships. She is also an avid appreciator of the pleasures of food, funny and assuring on the subject of age, and an advocate for kindness. All these elements are at work in her latest comedy of marriage. . . . All is droll and intriguing until Berg swerves, briefly, into the realm of terror, thus dramatically deepening questions about fear, love, family, and what one makes of one's life. Berg's tender and wise novels are oases in a harsh world."
      • premium: False
      • source: Library Journal
      • content: "This addictive read shows anew what a wonderful writing talent Berg is: strong characters illuminate a tender story about what makes a marriage work (or not), and how a family binds itself together despite things that pull it apart."
      • premium: True
      • source: AudioFile Magazine
      • content: John and Irene, a divorced couple, find themselves brought together after their 18-year-old daughter, Sadie, goes missing. Berg explores the feelings they experience upon their reunion while also providing glimpses of their shared past. Gabrielle de Cuir provides little differentiation in tone or pitch between the various characters. She does her best work with the voice of Sadie, injecting a slightly higher-pitched tone with all the sarcasm and disapproval of a teenager conversing with her parents. The result is a narration that does not enhance Berg's slow-moving story. E.N. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        April 11, 2011
        In Berg's anemic new novel, John and Irene Marsh, though divorced for some time, remain adoring parents to daughter Sadie, who is about to start college. Both parents are now in their fifties and trying to sort out dating and relationships, with varying levels of success. But when Sadie is kidnapped, their separate lives quickly cleave, and coping with the tragedy means that they must come together as a family. When Sadie is safely returned, and rushes into marriage, John and Irene are forced to deal with their own failures, and finally start to understand where they went wrong (as well as what they did right). Unfortunately, Berg doesn't give readers a reason to like care for any of her players, much less to invest in their relationship. And the kidnapping, both exploitative and anticlimactic, is too contrived, nothing but mechanics, the most obvious of inciting incidents. If Berg (The Last Time I Saw You) is out to plumb the depths of the modern marriage in the hopes of touching the profound, it fails to come across here.

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From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of Home Safe and The Last Time I Saw You comes a beautiful and moving novel about a man and woman, long divorced, who rediscover the power of love and family in the midst of an unthinkable crisis. 
Even on their wedding day, John and Irene sensed that they were about to make a mistake. Years later, divorced, dating other people, and living in different parts of the country, they seem to have nothing in common—nothing except the most important person in each of their lives: Sadie, their spirited eighteen-year-old  daughter. Feeling smothered by Irene and distanced from John, Sadie is growing more and more attached to her new boyfriend, Ron.
When tragedy strikes, Irene and John come together to support the daughter they love so dearly. What takes longer is to remember how they really feel about each other.
Elizabeth Berg has once again created characters who embody the many shades of...
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