Author Guide · Lisanne Swart
Books Written by Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett writes about the families people choose — hostages and their captors, half-siblings from broken marriages, friends who become closer than blood. She also owns and runs an independent bookstore in Nashville, Parnassus Books, which makes her one of the rare novelists equally devoted to writing books and getting them into readers’ hands.
Quick answer
Ann Patchett has published eight novels and three essay collections since 1992. Bel Canto (2001) won the Orange Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award; The Dutch House (2019) was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Key facts
- Born: 1963, Los Angeles; raised in Nashville, Tennessee
- Novels published: 8, from The Patron Saint of Liars (1992) to Tom Lake (2023)
- Breakout work: Bel Canto (2001), winner of the Orange Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award
- Also: Co-owner of Parnassus Books, an independent bookstore in Nashville
- Essay collections: 3, including These Precious Days (2021)
Jump to a book
The complete bibliography
1. The Patron Saint of Liars
1992 · Novel
Patchett’s debut, set in a Kentucky home for unwed mothers in the 1960s, following a pregnant woman who arrives intending to give up her child and stays much longer than planned.
2. Taft
1994 · Novel
A Memphis bar manager becomes an unlikely father figure to a teenage employee’s family in this early novel about race, fatherhood, and found family in the American South.
3. The Magician’s Assistant
1997 · Novel
A magician’s widow travels to Nebraska to meet the family he never told her about, uncovering a hidden life in the process.
4. Bel Canto
2001 · Novel
A birthday party at a South American vice-presidential residence turns into a months-long hostage crisis, during which captors and captives form unexpected bonds over opera. Patchett’s breakout novel, winner of the Orange Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award.
5. Run
2007 · Novel
A car accident on an icy Boston night pulls together a former mayor, his two adopted Black sons, and a stranger’s daughter in a novel about race, class, and inherited ambition.
6. State of Wonder
2011 · Novel
A pharmacologist travels deep into the Amazon to investigate the death of a colleague and finish the research of a brilliant, elusive scientist — part scientific thriller, part meditation on motherhood and ambition.
7. Commonwealth
2016 · Novel
A chance kiss at a christening party sets off a chain of events that reshuffles two families across five decades, told in fragments that jump between decades and points of view.
8. The Dutch House
2019 · Novel
Two siblings, exiled from their childhood home by a resentful stepmother, spend decades circling back to the house and each other. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and widely considered one of Patchett’s finest novels.
9. These Precious Days
2021 · Essays
A collection of personal essays, including the title essay about an unlikely friendship formed during the pandemic with Tom Hanks’s assistant, who came to stay with Patchett during her cancer treatment.
10. Tom Lake
2023 · Novel
A mother tells her three adult daughters the story of a summer romance with a man who later became a famous actor, set against the backdrop of a Michigan cherry orchard during the early days of the pandemic.
“There is no problem that a library card can’t solve.”
— Ann Patchett
Frequently asked questions
What is Ann Patchett’s most famous book?
Bel Canto (2001) remains her best-known novel and the one that established her reputation, though The Dutch House (2019) has become similarly popular with newer readers.
Does Ann Patchett own a bookstore?
Yes. She co-founded Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2011 and remains actively involved in running it alongside her writing career.
Which Ann Patchett book should I read first?
Bel Canto or The Dutch House are the two strongest entry points — Bel Canto for her structural ambition, The Dutch House for her most emotionally direct family story.
Has Ann Patchett written nonfiction?
Yes, three essay collections, most notably These Precious Days (2021), which includes personal essays on friendship, motherhood, and her cancer diagnosis.
