Ann Patchett

Author

Ann Patchett is an American novelist, essayist, and independent bookshop owner whose fiction and non-fiction have earned her both critical acclaim and a devoted readership. She is one of the most respected literary voices in contemporary American writing, known for novels that bring unlikely groups of people together and explore the... bonds that form between them. Born in Los Angeles in 1963, Patchett grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. She studied Creative Writing at Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her early novels — The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, and The Magician's Assistant — established her as a gifted storyteller with an unusual ability to create intimacy between characters and readers. Bel Canto, published in 2001, was her breakthrough. Inspired by the Japanese embassy hostage crisis in Lima, Peru, the novel follows a group of international hostages and their captors in a South American vice presidential mansion, where an unexpected community forms over the months of their captivity. The book won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction and became a bestseller. Commonwealth (2016) — a sprawling family novel spanning fifty years and two families merged by an affair at a christening party — was another major success, praised for its scope, its warmth, and its quiet wisdom about the ways families form and fracture. The Dutch House (2019), about two siblings and their complicated relationship with a grand house, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and was narrated in audiobook form by Tom Hanks. Tom Lake (2023), set on a cherry farm in Michigan during the Covid lockdowns, continued Patchett's exploration of memory, family, and the stories we tell about our lives. Patchett co-owns Parnassus Books, an independent bookshop in Nashville, and is a passionate advocate for independent bookselling and literacy. The audiobook editions of Patchett's novels are outstanding. The Dutch House audiobook, narrated by Tom Hanks, was a particular phenomenon and introduced her work to a vast new audience. Her prose translates beautifully to audio. Ann Patchett lives in Nashville. Her books and audiobooks are essential for anyone who values fiction that is wise, compassionate, and interested in the extraordinary things that happen when ordinary people are thrown together by circumstance. Read more Show less