Once asked if her nine novels had a common thread, bestselling author Ann Patchett didn’t hesitate. “A group of people are thrown together and must forge connections to survive,” she quipped.
The exquisite essays in her new collection, These Precious Days, suggest that Patchett’s formula for life doesn’t veer far from her literary inclinations: friendship, generosity, wonderment, turning the ordinary — especially the unanticipated — into the extraordinary.
The essays are a stunning reminder of why Patchett is described as a literary alchemist, a writer with a unique ability to sing simultaneously to the heart, to the intellect and to the imagination.
Her magic is on full display as she shares youthful memories of Paris, muses on the influence of Snoopy, waxes lyrical about Eudora Welty and moves on to knitting.
Ann Patchett received the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Bel Canto. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
More About Women on the Move: A Virtual Series
Temple Emanu-El’s Stettenheim Library is proud to present its fourth edition of Women on the Move, a series that welcomes female authors to discuss their latest work probing the intricacies of our lives.
The series will be moderated by Zibby Owens, writer and creator of the popular podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, one of O: The Oprah Magazine’s favorite book podcasts; journalist Jordana Horn, co-host of the Call Your Mother podcast and contributing editor at Kveller; and Marjorie Shuster, Coordinator of Literary Events at Temple Emanu-El.
Sponsored by The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Authors’ Series, honoring Theodore and Caroline Newhouse and Susan Newhouse