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THE NO. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A 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 yet
It 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.
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Review:
The book that really stood out for me was Ann Patchett's novel Commonwealth. It's so beautifully structured, and the characters are subtle and three-dimensional. If she were a man, I'm sure she'd be lauded as one of the Great American Novelists (Jojo Moyes Washington Post Books of the Year)
An outstanding novel ... The opening is a show stopper . Patchett is a pleasure to read: there is a no-fuss casualness to the prose that is only possible when a writer is in control of every word and she is master of her art . What is so skilful is the way Patchett makes no moral judgments ... Brilliant (Observer)
The opening scene .. is a faultless set piece ... Her prose is equally powerful when she's evoking a 1970s summer in Virginia . Patchett deftly summons up a simmering childhood anger and dangerously ricocheting energy (The Times)
Dazzling . sharply observed, ripe with humour, laden with significance . Patchett weaves a complex structure . Yet always feels in control . She is adept at showing, not telling, her characters shimmer with life-likeness, and she pulls you into every one of her vibrantly drawn scenes with great ease . The combination of lightness, warmth and remarkable incisiveness creates a novel that is life-affirming and compulsively readable (Sunday Times 2016-09-11)
The book flows easily between narrators, constantly switching from past to present, and slowly revealing what happened that summer, allowing Patchett to play with memory and perspective to surprisingly moving effect ... Commonwealth is a book about relationships and the obligations they bring .. Poignant ... funny ... An engaging novel that draws you in with sharp observation, a gin-fuelled plot written in beautiful prose and convincing dialogue. You miss the characters once it's over (Evening Standard)
Commonwealth is full of heart, and is Patchett's most complex and emotionally suspenseful novel. She never hits a wrong note although she conjures with many deftly drawn characters. The opening chapter is one of the best party-scene seductions ever written (Louise Erdrich, author of The Beet Queen)
A deft craftsman . Patchett ultimately wins the reader over with her perceptive qualities, alluring characters and undertone of humour . In Commonwealth, Patchett's nimble storytelling floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee (Literary Review 2016-09-01)
Patchett writes excellently and seemingly artlessly, her many sub-stories wandering in and out of each other like rivulets in a stream. Some characters swim into brilliant focus, while others remain dimly lit in the shadows, but Patchett boldly avoids resolving any of it and what emerges instead is the captivating music of life's random, relentless pulse (Daily Mail 2016-09-02)
So clear and clean and at the top of her game ... It is just so masterfully done. The sweep of it and the subtlety of the ideas (Esther Freud)
Beautiful (Katie Roiphe Observer)
Book Description:
An outstanding novel ... The opening is a show stopper . Patchett is a pleasure to read: there is a no-fuss casualness to the prose that is only possible when a writer is in control of every word and she is master of her art . What is so skilful is the way Patchett makes no moral judgments ... Brilliant (Observer)
The opening scene .. is a faultless set piece ... Her prose is equally powerful when she's evoking a 1970s summer in Virginia . Patchett deftly summons up a simmering childhood anger and dangerously ricocheting energy (The Times)
Dazzling . sharply observed, ripe with humour, laden with significance . Patchett weaves a complex structure . Yet always feels in control . She is adept at showing, not telling, her characters shimmer with life-likeness, and she pulls you into every one of her vibrantly drawn scenes with great ease . The combination of lightness, warmth and remarkable incisiveness creates a novel that is life-affirming and compulsively readable (Sunday Times 2016-09-11)
The book flows easily between narrators, constantly switching from past to present, and slowly revealing what happened that summer, allowing Patchett to play with memory and perspective to surprisingly moving effect ... Commonwealth is a book about relationships and the obligations they bring .. Poignant ... funny ... An engaging novel that draws you in with sharp observation, a gin-fuelled plot written in beautiful prose and convincing dialogue. You miss the characters once it's over (Evening Standard)
Commonwealth is full of heart, and is Patchett's most complex and emotionally suspenseful novel. She never hits a wrong note although she conjures with many deftly drawn characters. The opening chapter is one of the best party-scene seductions ever written (Louise Erdrich, author of The Beet Queen)
A deft craftsman . Patchett ultimately wins the reader over with her perceptive qualities, alluring characters and undertone of humour . In Commonwealth, Patchett's nimble storytelling floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee (Literary Review 2016-09-01)
Patchett writes excellently and seemingly artlessly, her many sub-stories wandering in and out of each other like rivulets in a stream. Some characters swim into brilliant focus, while others remain dimly lit in the shadows, but Patchett boldly avoids resolving any of it and what emerges instead is the captivating music of life's random, relentless pulse (Daily Mail 2016-09-02)
So clear and clean and at the top of her game ... It is just so masterfully done. The sweep of it and the subtlety of the ideas (Esther Freud)
Beautiful (Katie Roiphe Observer)
A No. 1 New York Times bestseller, the 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 yet
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- PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
- Publication date2016
- ISBN 10 1408880407
- ISBN 13 9781408880401
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages336
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Commonwealth
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Bloomsbury Publishing
(2016)
ISBN 10: 1408880407
ISBN 13: 9781408880401
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 336 pages. 9.13x6.57x1.11 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # zk1408880407
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