SUZANNE BERNE

Longlisted for the Baileys Women''s Prize for Fiction 2014Littlefield, 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

"Both devastating and funny in its well-chosen detail...Highly recommended". (Daily Mail). "As astute in her observations of contemporary culture as she is in capturing the minutiae of longing, disappointment and loss". (Sunday Times). Littlefield, Massachusetts, named one of the Ten Best Places to Live in America, full of psychologists and college professors, is proud of its fine schools, its girls' soccer teams, its leafy streets and quaint village centre. Yet no sooner has sociologist Dr Clarice Watkins arrived in Littlefield to study the elements of 'good quality of life' than someone begins poisoning the town's dogs. Are the poisonings in protest to an off-leash proposal for Baldwin Park - the subject of much town debate - or the sign of a far deeper disorder? The Dogs of Littlefield is a wry exploration of the discontent concealed behind the manicured lawns and picket fences of darkest suburbia. "Berne takes the domestic and turns it into the majestic". )(Sunday Telegraph). "This funny novel explores the flaws of a perfect neighbourhood with a bizarre killer on the loose". (Psychologies). Suzanne Berne's first novel, A Crime in the Neighbourhood, won the 1999 Orange Prize. She is also the author of A Perfect Arrangement, The Ghost at the Table and Missing Lucile. Suzanne Berne lives with her husband and two daughters near Boston.

'Families are toxic...' Thanksgiving, New England, and writer Cynthia has been persuaded by elder sister Frances to come and visit for the autumn holiday. Cynthia is reluctant to join in this family reunion because she'd rather not see their long-estranged father. Yet Frances is adamant that they must all meet to clear the air - poisoned ever since their mother died when they were children. But Cynthia has her own ideas about how to use this family occasion. It's time to lift the lid on some unwelcome home truths about what happened all those years ago. And this time her daddy's feelings are not to be spared ...

10-year-old Marsha is in turmoil following the collapse of her parents marriage, and the brutal murder of a local boy. When the shy bachelor from next door begins to take an interest in Marshas mother, Marsha is drawn into a cruel spiral of events that quickly spins out of control.

A lawyer, Mirella, and her architect husband, Howard, hire a nanny to care for their two tots. Randi seems to be perfect for the job, but as the reader gets a closer look into her mind, it becomes clear that things are stranger, and more ominous, than they seem. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.

Es verano de 1972 en una zona residencial de Washington y Marsha Eberhardt tiene diez años. Ahora, ya adulta, recuerda aquellos meses decisivos durante los cuales el asesinato y violación de un niño de doce años convulsionaron el vecindario y las vidas de algunos de sus habitantes. Pero junto a aquel asesinato, otro suceso marco profundamente la vida de Marsha: el abandono de su padre. A traves de los ojos de una niña de diez años, vemos reflejados minuciosamente la atmosfera y las alteraciones de su entorno: los cambios en su familia tras la separacion de sus padres, la progresiva transformacion de su madre, la vida cerrada y opresiva en los barrios residenciales, la ambigua relacion con sus hermanos mayores, el seguimiento minucioso e ingenuo del crimen que Marsha lleva a cabo en un cuaderno... Y como trasfondo del retrato de este pequeño mundo cambiante, llegan los ecos de la sociedad norteamericana de la era Nixon, con su visita a la China de Mao o el escandalo de Watergate. Suzanne Berne ha elaborado en Un crimen en el vecindario un amargo y lucido retrato de las familias de clase media y de las zonas residenciales en las que se agrupan buscando una seguridad que ahora se ve amenazada: el crimen sacude al vecindario; la separacion a la familia y los escandalos gubernamentales cuestionan la confianza en el poder.

Con ocasión de la celebración del día de Acción de Gracias, Cynthia y Frances, separadas por la distancia y los años, logran reunirse junto a su padre, a quien no ven desde hace tiempo.