Suzanne Berne


Suzanne Berne is an American novelist known for her foreboding character studies involving unexpected domestic and psychological drama in bucolic suburban settings.

Life

Berne attended Georgetown Day School. She was educated at Wesleyan University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She has taught at both Harvard University and Wellesley College. She is associate English professor at Boston College.
Berne currently lives in Boston with her husband and two girls.

Career

Berne's debut novel, A Crime in the Neighborhood, won the Orange Prize. Told through the eyes of a ten-year-old girl, the book chronicles a child's murder in a sleepy suburb of Washington, D.C. against the backdrop of the unfolding Watergate scandal. A Perfect Arrangement tells of the complex and increasingly disturbing relationship between a normal suburban family and their exceptionally perfect nanny. The Ghost at the Table explores the dramatic territory between two sisters' differing versions of their shared history.

Works