Home Repair [Paperback]

Liz Rosenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

Can lighting really strike twice? Just ask Eve, whose husband walks out on her in the middle of a garage sale.

Eve's beloved Ivan died thirteen years ago in an automobile accident. Her charming, boyish Chuck has taken a different exit out of her life: hopping into his car in the middle of a garage sale with no forewarning and departing their formerly happy upstate New York home for points unknown. Now Eve's a boat adrift, subsisting on a heartbreak diet of rue, disappointment, and woe-left alone to care for Ivan's brilliant teenaged son, Marcus, and Chuck's precocious, pragmatic nine-year-old daughter, Noni, while contending with Charlotte, Eve's acerbic mother, who's come north to "help" but hinders instead.

But life ultimately must go on, with its highs and lows, its traumas and holidays, and well-meaning, if eccentric, friends. A house and a heart in disrepair are painful burdens for a passionate woman who's still in her prime. And while learning to cope with the large and small tragedies that each passing day brings, Eve might end up discovering that she's gained much more than she's lost.

A poignant, lovely, funny, and ultimately uplifting story of love, family, and survival, Liz Rosenberg's Home Repair is an unforgettable introduction to a lyrical, wise, and wonderfully vibrant new literary voice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rosenberg, a poet and children's book author, makes a clean break into adult fiction with the story of a middle-aged woman whose journey to independence begins at a garage sale. Forty-six-year-old Eve's garage sale takes an unexpected turn when her husband, Chuck, goes on an errand and never comes back, leaving Eve to raise teenage son Marcus and nine-year-old daughter Noni. Drawing support from her sometimes helpful mother, old friends at the university where she works and new friends—such as the man she meets in the park and a Korean graduate student and his non–English-speaking wife—Eve discovers the locals offer all she needs in her life. Rosenberg achieves remarkable emotional range—comic to tragic, dysfunction to triumph, irony to wisdom—for an engaging, often touching story of survival on a heartbreak diet. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Original edition (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006173456X
• ISBN-13: 978-0061734564
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,195,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Liz Rosenberg is the author of 3 novels, 5 books of poems and more than 20 award winning books for children. She has edited five prize winning poetry anthologies (including THE INVISIBLE LADDER and LIGHT GATHERING POEMS) and her picture book, THE CAROUSEL was featured on PBS' Reading Rainbow. Her newest picture book, TYRANNOSAURUS DAD, illustrated by brilliant newcomer Matthew Myers, is a Children's Book of the Month Club bestseller, has garnered praise from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, School Library Journal and elsewhere, and was an Amazon top 10 children's book on dinosaurs, sports and family.

Her first novel for adults, HOME REPAIR was a Target Breakout book and voted top ten for Book Clubs and Most Likely to be Next Oprah Pick on Goodreads.

Liz Rosenberg was born and raised on Long Island. She met her husband, David, when they were 7 and 8 years old respectively, at summer camp. They became friends in high school, each married other people, and ten years after they had reconnected in high school, finally got married. They have been married 3 times to each other because they are both terrible at keeping track of paperwork. They have an actor son, Eli, and an 8 year old daughter, Lily.

Liz Rosenberg's first husband was the late great American novelist John Gardner, author of Grendel, Nickel Mountain, How to Become a Novelist and more than 25 other works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and scholarship. Together they taught at the State University of Binghamton till his untimely death in l982 in a motorcycle accident. She continues as a full professor at Binghamton University's English Department and has guest taught all over the world, from Russia to Austria to Singapore, and at colleges throughout the United States. Ms. Rosenberg spends her time reading and writing. Her hobbies are reading and writing and her passions are-- right, reading and writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to Skim, May 6, 2009

By 

Mark Levy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Home Repair (Paperback)

At first, I wanted to skim Liz Rosenberg's book; but as I read, it became impossible for me to skip ahead. I was drawn into every sentence. Eve's grandmother and her daughter are wonderfully painted, with distinct and lovable qualities and I hated to come to the end of the novel. The story has humor, anguish, and tension -- a combination that doesn't often occur successfully in modern literature.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Was great for the daily commute, May 4, 2009

By 

Sam Livingston (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Home Repair (Paperback)

I had a friend recommend this book to me, so I looked into it as I usually read a book a week while on the train to and from work. It was really entertaining! I actually kept reading it even after getting home, which I rarely do since I read to keep my self entertained on the train and thus try to save the book for that time. I really couldn't put this down though. I'd recommend it to someone who wants a good story that brings them through the everyday mind spinning chaos of life, but at the end leaves them feeling good about being alive and being human (with all our of our own deficiencies and beauty) in this world.

I really enjoyed this and would definitely say it's worth checking out.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book I've read this Year., May 25, 2009

By 

Mephisto (Florida) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Home Repair (Paperback)

Picked up Home Repair while waiting on line at my local bookstore and couldn't put it down. I kept letting people go ahead of me until finally I crept over to the coffee area. I read about 50 pages when my phone vibrated in my pocket and my wife asked me what was going on. (She loved it too.) Smart, funny, beautifully written and full of surprises. Best Book I've read this year.