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    The Days of Wine and Covid
    The Days of Wine and Covid
    The Days of Wine and Covid
    Ebook42 pages42 minutes

    The Days of Wine and Covid

    By Elizabeth Berg

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    About this ebook

    “Elizabeth Berg’s writing is to literature what Chopin’s études are to music—measured, delicate, and impossible to walk away from until their completion.” —Entertainment Weekly

    From the bestselling author of The Story of Arthur Trulove, Open House, and The Pull of the Moon, a comical yet tender look at a husband and wife trying to survive a pandemic, political fallout—and each other.

    Even during the best of times, marriage can be a challenge. For Nan and Martin, this definitely is not the best of times. Trapped together while Covid rages, they do what they can to keep their sanity while keeping civil with each other. Nan holds her tongue when Martin sounds like a know-it-all, and Martin patiently waits out Nan’s stress-induced bouts of vertigo. They adopt a dog and give him a pandemic-inspired name—Divoc—that is as unsettling as it is funny. They doomwatch the news and find comfort in their shared political beliefs, so different from those of their next-door neighbor, Jerry. Clearly, Nan and Martin love and respect each other. But Nan has been keeping a secret, and when she finally tells Martin, their quarantine—and marriage—take a sudden and surprising turn.

    Fans of Elizabeth Berg might recognize Nan and Martin from her bestselling novel The Pull of the Moon. In The Days of Wine and Covid, their marriage is thrown for a loop yet again, this time against the backdrop of a national crisis. Berg is unparalleled in her ability to capture the joys, sorrows, and comedy of everyday life, and to celebrate the relationships that bind us. With The Days of Wine and Covid, she reminds us that, despite our differences, we’re all in this together. It’s an optimistic and affirming capper to the challenging year that has been 2020.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEverand Originals
    Release dateDec 17, 2020
    ISBN9781094415765
    Author

    Elizabeth Berg

    Elizabeth Berg is the award-winning author of more than twenty-five books, including the New York Times bestsellers True to Form, Never Change, Open House, The Story of Arthur Truluv, Night of Miracles, and The Confession Club. She lives outside of Chicago. Find out more at Elizabeth-Berg.net.

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    • 5/5
      Enjoyed every minute of it. Touching and real life emotion. A bit of humor to a very everyday situation, with a hint of worry, fear, loneliness, hope and the love that holds us all together.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Short, but Berg manages to pack in a lot of character and heart in that time. I really enjoyed following Nan and hearing her perspective, especially as an older woman.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A humorous touching book about an older couple during COVID. Touches on politics and the challenges of lockdown. Quick nice read.
    • 3/5
      This book was so good to read. But, i not understand a little bit. Because i came from Malaysia. Muslim.

    Book preview

    The Days of Wine and Covid - Elizabeth Berg

    Cover Image for The Days of Wine and Covid by Elizabeth Berg

    The Days of Wine and Covid

    By Elizabeth Berg

    SCRIBD ORIGINALS

    Copyright © 2020 by Elizabeth Berg

    All rights reserved

    Cover design by Catherine Casalino

    ISBN: 9781094415765

    First e-book edition: December 2020

    Scribd, Inc.

    San Francisco, California

    Scribd.com

    For more, visit www.scribd.com and follow @Scribd on Twitter and Facebook.

    IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES, it was the worst of times. It just kept on being the worst of times.

    Two weeks into the stay-at-home order, Martin searches Nan’s face as she comes into the kitchen. You okay? he asks.

    Good morning, she answers.

    You okay? he asks again. Since this all began, Nan has been suffering from vertigo. At first they were afraid it was a symptom of you-know-what. But no, Nan gets vertigo now and again, and attributes it to dehydration, stress, and bad luck. Every time an episode happens and the room tilts, she gasps and says, Oh my God! She is embarrassed to call out this way, but she can’t help it; it’s so weird and scary to have your internal compass go berserk. After the acute phase passes, she stares steely-eyed straight ahead to show vertigo who’s boss, even though she knows full well that it is boss, and will leave when it feels like it. It’s like an incredibly bad houseguest.

    I’m okay, she says. For now.

    She sits at the table with her coffee, then leaps up. I forgot! Trader Joe’s croissants. She turns on the oven to preheat it for the pastry she thawed overnight. I love those things, she says. I hope the insides don’t leak out like they sometimes do.

    Martin shrugs. You can eat the insides when they’re out, he says.

    I know, but I like when they stay in, so they’re nice and evenly spread.

    You can spread them, Martin says, like he just won The Great British Bake Off. Just cut it in half lengthwise and spread it.

    It’s the lengthwise that irritates Nan most. As if she didn’t know that. But never mind, no point in starting an argument. They’ve agreed they should try very hard not to argue, stuck with each other the way they are now. They must not argue, they must not cut themselves with a knife in a way that requires stitches, they must not have heart attacks or stomach pain or God forbid a bad headache or a cough. Everything seems balanced on such a thin line. Everyone must think so hard about everything. Disinfecting groceries. How to handle mail. If you wash your hands and then use your hand to shut off the spigot, don’t you have to wash your hands again? It’s Sisyphean!

    I was thinking, Nan says. "I want to make a prediction to our grandchildren about what they’ll be. I’m going to tell Ron he’ll open a restaurant, called Pigsty, and it will

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