'I can tell you how it happened. It's easy to say how it happened. He walked past a building, and a huge chunk of ice fell off the roof, and it hit him in the head. This is Chaplinesque, right? People start to laugh when I tell them-'As Jay Berman lingers in a coma, his young wife, Lainey, is the only one who believes he will recover. While he lies motionless, she hopes to reach him by offering reminders of the ordinary life they shared - sweet-smelling flowers, his softly textured shirt, spicesfrom their kitchen. And throughout her ordeal, Lainey is sustained by her relationship with two very special women, each of whom teaches her about the enduring bond of friendship and the genuine power of hope.

Elizabeth Berg is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Never Change and Open House, which was an Oprah's Book Club selection in 2000. Joy School was selected as American Library Association Best Book of the Year, and Talk Before Sleep, another New York Times bestseller, was shortlisted for the ABBY award in 1996. The winner of the 1997 New England Bookseller's Award for her body of work, she is also the author of The Pull of the Moon, Range of Motion, What We Keep and Until the Real Thing Comes Along which were all bestsellers in the United States. A former nurse, she lives in Chicago.

'The love story of the year'*>