

How this happens, and how Maeve and Danny try-and fail-to move on with their own lives unfolds through flashbacks as Danny reflects on his life. Into the ordered, particular world of the Dutch House comes Andrea, a new stepmother who will end up banning Danny and Maeve from their own home. Their mother left the family when they were very young and hasn’t been heard from since. Siblings Danny and Maeve live in a large mansion (the Dutch House of the title) with their real estate mogul father. Speaking of feeling both modern and classic, Patchett’s most recent novel has a fairytale-esque quality that will sweep you up. By signing up you agree to our terms of use Must-Reads 4. Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. You’ll also get to know Patchett as a person before you check out her other books. It’s a beautifully written account of the love between two friends and what happens when one of them has problems the other cannot fix. Truth and Beauty is the story of that friendship. Patchett and Grealy met in graduate school and had a close, mutually dependent relationship. Of course, this had a huge impact on her life, which she writes about beautifully in her own memoir, Autobiography of a Face. As a child, Grealy had cancer which required the removal of part of her jawbone and several reconstructive surgeries.

This memoir tells the story of Patchett’s friendship with Lucy Grealy, a writer who died of an overdose in 2002. If you’re looking for an absorbing novel that feels at once classic and modern, this is for you. The novel unfolds over the span of 50 years and it’s fascinating to watch these characters change, fall apart, and come together again. She’s said that Commonwealth was partly based on her own childhood experience, and it has a realistic, lived-in feeling that makes you feel like you’re reading about the lives of people you know. It starts with another wonderful party scene-this time a boozy christening party that kicks off an affair and leads to two divorces, a newly blended family, and a cross-country move. This is my favorite of Patchett’s novels. (And she’s really good at writing parties!) It’s beautifully written, intense, and moving. I suggest starting with Bel Canto because it displays Patchett’s talent for juggling multiple character arcs and complicated relationships. A standoff develops in which everyone placed in this unusual, tense situation discovers more about themselves and one another. But when members of a terrorist group crash the party, mistakenly believing the country’s president will be there, the party takes an abrupt turn. Because he’s a fan of opera, the party includes an appearance by a famous American soprano. The novel is set in an unnamed South American country at a party thrown in honor of a visiting Japanese businessman. It won the Orange Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Bel Cantoīel Canto is not Patchett’s first novel but it’s the one that brought her wide readership.

Where to Start With Ann Patchett Books 1.
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She understands how to let characters reveal themselves over time and it’s a great pleasure to just sink into the world of a Patchett novel. Though I have enjoyed Patchett’s nonfiction, I think of her primarily as a novelist. In 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville. She has since published seven more novels and three works of nonfiction. After attending Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Patchett published her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, in 1992. She was born in Los Angeles in 1963 and grew up in Nashville. Patchett is an award-winning novelist and bookstore owner.
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But did you know Patchett has a backlist full of other great titles? And that she’s also written nonfiction? Whether you’re a Patchett newbie or a fan looking for more of her books, this guide to Ann Patchett books will help you figure out where to start reading her work. Not only is she a bestselling, award-winning novelist who just released a new book (the wonderful The Dutch House), she owns a popular Nashville independent bookstore, Parnassus Books. If you’re a book lover, you’ve probably heard of Ann Patchett.
