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September's Author of the Month: ANN PATCHETT

Thursday, Sep 01, 2016 at 2:42pm

Convinced from childhood that she wanted to write fiction, Ann Patchett studied creative writing first at Sarah Lawrence college in New York and then at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She hit her stride with her fourth novel, Bel Canto, a stylish kidnapping fantasy set in an unnamed South American capital. It became a bestseller and went on to win Britain's Orange Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Prize. Since then her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.

Her seventh novel, Commonwealth, tells the story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes the lives of two families. One Sunday afternoon, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families. Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

Categories: Authors, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Author of the Month

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Bel Canto

- Ann Patchett

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Winner of the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction.

In Bel Canto, Ann Patchett weaves a tale of music, romance, hostage-taking and diplomacy. Character and relationship driven, it is a novel that could be violent, but is gentle; could be boring, but is intriguing; could be predictable, but is surprising. One of my favourite novels this year, it is a great read for summer or any time. (Barb)

Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gunwielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.

Ann Patchett was born in Los Angeles in 1963, the youngest daughter of her nurse mother and police officer father. While attending Sarah Lawrence College, Patchett took fiction writing classes with Alan Gurganus, Russell Banks, and Grace Paley. She sold her first story to the Paris Review, where it was published before her graduation. Patchett then went on to attend the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. In 1990, Patchett won a residential fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It is there that she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, which received a James A. Michener/ Copernicus Award for a book in progress. In 1993, she received a Bunting Fellowship from the Mary Ingrahm Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College. Patchett's second novel, Taft, was awarded the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best work of fiction in 1994. Her third novel, The Magician's Assistant, was short-listed for England's Orange Prize and earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994. In October of the same year, just three days after the official release of The Magician's Assistant, Patchett was awarded the Nashville Banner Tennessee Writer of the Year Award. She has also written for numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine and Gourmet. Ann Patchett's most recent novel,Bel Canto, won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Patchett currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Magician's Assistant

- Ann Patchett

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When the magician Parsifal dies, his assistant, Sabine, who was also for only the last few months of his life married to Parsifal, must sort out the emotional baggage she inherits.

The Patron Saint of Liars

- Ann Patchett

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A New York Times Notable Book

Acclaimed author Ann Patchett's debut novel, hailed as "beautifully written . . . a first novel that second- and third-time novelists would envy for its grace, insight, and compassion" (Boston Herald)

St. Elizabeth's, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth's extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose's past won't be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth's; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving.

Run

- Ann Patchett

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Patchett writes another novel with an unlikely twist and a style so captivating that the listener completely suspends disbelief. A poor black woman with an 11-year-old daughter throws herself in front of an SUV to save the life of a 21-year-old young man named Tip. Quickly listeners learn that the woman is his birth mother, and a dramatic story reveals the intimacies of two unique families as they become family to each other. Peter Francis James delivers the narrative with tonal subtleties that define all the characters--from the vital, insightful 11-year-old to the two mothers whose love is strong enough to last beyond the grave.

State of Wonder

- Ann Patchett

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"A nail-biting narrative, setting stark human dilemmas against a lush, exotic backdrop."-- People

"Extraordinary. . . . Nothing is as it seems, and the ending is as shocking as it's satisfying." -- Boston Globe

From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett, a provocative and assured novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest

In a narrative replete with poison arrows, devouring snakes, scientific miracles, and spiritual transformations, State of Wonder presents a world of stunning surprise and danger, rich in emotional resonance and moral complexity.

As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she's forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle. Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy and sacrifice as she journeys into the unforgiving heart of darkness.

Stirring and luminous, State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss beneath the rain forest's jeweled canopy. Patchett delivers a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love.

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

- Ann Patchett

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A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

"I had been so engaged by Ann Patchett's multifaceted story, so lured in by her confiding voice, that I forgot I was on the job. [...] As the best personal essays often do, Patchett's is a two-way mirror, reflecting both the author and her readers." -- New York Times Book Review

Blending literature and memoir, New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder, Run, and Bel Canto, examines her deepest commitments--to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband--creating a resonant portrait of a life in This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.

Stretching from her childhood to the present day, from a disastrous early marriage to a later happy one, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage covers a multitude of topics, including relationships with family and friends, and charts the hard work and joy of writing, and the unexpected thrill of opening a bookstore.

As she shares stories of the people, places, ideals, and art to which she has remained indelibly committed, Ann Patchett brings into focus the large experiences and small moments that have shaped her as a daughter, wife, and writer.