Commonwealth - Ann Patchett
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Commonwealth

Updated: 7 Sep 2020
THE NO. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA powerful story of two families brought together by beauty and torn apart by tragedy, the new novel by the Orange Prize-winning author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder is her most astonishing yetIt is 1964: Bert Cousins, the deputy district attorney, shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited, bottle of gin in hand. As the cops of Los Angeles drink, talk and dance into the June afternoon, he notices a heart-stoppingly beautiful woman. When Bert kisses Beverly Keating, his host's wife, the new baby pressed between them, he sets in motion the joining of two families whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later.In 1988, Franny Keating, now twenty-four, has dropped out of law school and is working as a cocktail waitress in Chicago. When she meets one of her idols, the famous author Leon Posen, and tells him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story. Franny never dreams that the consequences of this encounter will extend beyond her own life into those of her scattered siblings and parents.Told with equal measures of humour and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a powerful and tender tale of family, betrayal and the far-reaching bonds of love and responsibility. A meditation on inspiration, interpretation and the ownership of stories, it is Ann Patchett's most astonishing work to date.
Politician
16 followers
40 FLIISTs
over 1 year ago
...taught me this Jeopardy!-worthy bit of trivia: How to make a “barmaid’s gin and tonic” to serve people who are already drunk. I’ve never needed to know this, but knowing it is like being let in on a cool little secret. Thank you, Ann Patchett, Commonwealth.
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Politician, Writer
38 followers
120 FLIISTs
5 years ago
I’ve usually got a pile of books next to me when I sleep, each of them at varying levels of completion. On my nightstand right now, there’s “Educated,” by Tara Westover; “An American Marriage,” by Tayari Jones; “Exit West,” by Mohsin Hamid; “White Teeth,” by Zadie Smith; and Ann Patchett’s “Commonwealth.”
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