An Evening with
ANN PATCHETT
discussing
The Dutch House
Friday, September 27, 7:30pm
Coral Gables Congregational Church
3010 De Soto Boulevard (across the street from the Biltmore Hotel)
In THE DUTCH HOUSE (Harper, $27.99), her first novel since the #1 New York Times bestseller Commonwealth, Ann Patchett once again pushes against conventional notions of family to explore the intertwined lives of two siblings, their inextricable bond to each other, and the indelible hold of the elegant childhood home from which they were banished. As witnessed through the perspective of the younger of the children, the masterful narrative unfolds as a series of sometimes clouded memories of a paradise lost, shaped as much by yearning as by truth.
Patchett, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and Orange Prize, “is a virtuoso storyteller with an ability to create characters we can innately understand” (Chicago Sun-Time), and she here employs her trademark literary powers in crafting a story of the quiet heartbreak of loss.
Lauded for her “vibrant prose” (Time), “humanity, humor” (Library Journal), and “emotional intelligence” (Entertainment Weekly), Ann Patchett is a storyteller of uncompromising perception. THE DUTCH HOUSE extends the boundaries of Patchett’s estimable art to explore the infallibility of memory and the deep recesses of material and emotional loss.
Ann Patchett is the author of seven novels, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder, and Commonwealth. She was the editor of Best American Short Stories, 2006, and has written three books of nonfiction, Truth & Beauty, What now?, and, most recently, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.
She has won numerous prizes, including the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, and her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. Patchett is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband, Karl VanDevender, and their dog, Sparky.