Ann Patchett

A teacher at a woman's college advises college educated women to apply their education to their domestic duties and to religious work.

It's a winter evening in Boston and the temperature has drastically dropped as a blizzard approaches the city. On this fateful night, Bernard Doyle plans to meet his two adopted sons, Tip the older, and more serious and Teddy, the affectionate dreamer, at a Harvard auditorium to hear a speech given by Jesse Jackson. Doyle, an Irish Catholic and former Boston mayor, has done his best to keep his two sons interested in politics, from the day he and his now deceased wife became their parents, through their childhoods, and now in their lives as college students. Though the two boys are African-American, the bonds of the family's love have never been tested. But as the snow begins to falls, an accident triggers into motion a series of events that will forever change their lives. This is at its very center, a novel about what truly defines family and the lengths we will go to protect our children. As she did in her bestselling novel Bel Canto, Patchett beautifully weaves together seemingly disparate lives to show how intimately humans can connect. Stunning and powerful, Run is sure to engage any Patchett fan and bring her even more admirers.

PerfectBound e-book exclusive: "Friendship and Love," an interview with Ann Patchett.A prolonged hostage crisis in the lavish home of a South American politician turns into something quite different as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and passionate, ill-fated love blooms. Winner of the 2002 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction.Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening -- until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in through the air-conditioning vents and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different countries and continents become compatriots. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion and cannot be stopped.

"This dazzling book examines the inspiration behind the work of the Pre-Raphaelites and offers comparisons between the radical 19th-century artists and the masterworks they revered. Started in the early 19th century by a group of British painters who rejected the sovereignty of the Royal Academy, the Pre-Raphaelites embraced the natural world and bright colors--as opposed to the dark palettes and amorphous lines that emerged in the wake of the Renaissance. Their mission was to be fundamentally modern by emulating the past. Now readers can appreciate their achievements in this volume that offers side-by-side comparisons of 19th-century masterpieces with the 15th- and 16th-century Early Italian and Early Netherlandish paintings that inspired them. Exquisite reproductions of works by Giotto, Fra Angelico, van Eyck, Botticelli, Titian, Veronese, and Raphael are presented alongside examples by William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and others. The book traces the evolution of the Pre-Raphaelites, and details how these painters were exposed to the early masters as they traveled and encountered the finest European collections. The volume also features decorative arts, including stained glass and tapestries in emulation of Flemish and French textiles as well as "medievalized" ecclesiastic decorations. The result is an illuminating examination that delves into the Pre-Raphaelites' aesthetic vocabulary and broadens our understanding of their motives and inspiration"--

What is to become of a magician's assistant without her magician? This is the question Sabine asks herself after the death of Parsifal, the magician she worked with for more than twenty years and her husband for only a few months. Parsifal loved men, especially Phan, and though Sabine loved Parsifal, she contented herself with his friendship. Now Parsifal and Phan are both gone, and Sabine is left with full responsibility for their possessions and their histories. Always the assistant, her life is still defined by service to Parsifal. But in the world of illusion Sabine has occupied for her entire life, things are rarely what they seem. According to Parsifal, he had no living relatives. Now, with his death, comes the news that he has a mother and two sisters living in Alliance, Nebraska. Inevitably, the strangers will meet and Sabine will be carried away from her beloved Los Angeles to seek the truth of Parsifal's past in the bitterly windswept steppes of Nebraska in winter. It is here that Sabine will learn the truth about Parsifal's father, which lies at the heart of his son's abandonment of his family and of his identity. As the members of Parsifal's family turn to Sabine for help, she realizes that she is something of a magician herself. In this newfound strength Sabine may at last find the kind of love she had always been denied.

Taft is the story of John Nickel, a black ex-musician who wanted nothing more than to be a good father. But his son is taken away from him and he is left with nothing but the Memphis bar he manages. When he hires a young white waitress named Fay Taft, he doesn't know that he is taking on her desperate brother, Carl, as well. Nickel's sympathies for these two quickly become a dangerous path into the lives of strangers. As the ominous events of the story unfold, Nickel is consumed with the idea of Taft, Fay and Carl's dead father. Through imagination, he begins to reconstruct the life of a man he never met. Through Taft, he begins to define the priorities of his own life. The voice of John Nickel is a stunning artistic achievement. The story it tells is universal in its appeal to our instincts to protect the people we love. Taft confirms Ann Patchett's standing as one of the most gifted writers of her generation.

St. Elizabeth’s, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth’s extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose’s past won’t be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth’s; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving.

As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle. Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy and sacrifice as she journeys into the unforgiving heart of darkness.

Marina nie chciała tam jechać. Lubiła śnieg w Minnesocie, swoje laboratorium i bliskość mężczyzny, którego kochała. Ale nie miała wyjścia. Ktoś musiał sprawdzić, co dzieje się z doktor Swenson. Nie była pewna, co przeraża ją bardziej: spędzenie miesiąca w dzikiej puszczy amazońskiej, w której ciężkie i lepkie powietrze wibruje poruszane skrzydełkami miliona owadów, czy ponowne spotkanie z doktor Swenson. Drobna siedemdziesięcioletnia kobieta, a respekt czuli przed nią wszyscy. Jej badania już niedługo miały odmienić życie kobiet na całym świecie. Jednak dla Mariny nie to było najważniejsze.

Everyone has a Christmas-nightmare story to tell. Some of the best writers around have gone through some of the worst Christmases ever. Their tales of holly-draped horror are gathered here for your amusement, from Christmas-ham disasters to what may be the worst gift ever given.--From publisher description.

A HOUSE FORMERLY OWNED BY A WEALTHY COUPLE IS PASSED DOWN TO A NEWLY RICH BUSINESSMAN AND HIS CHILDREN. HOW THE HOUSE OWNERSHIP MOVES THROUGH TIME.

Ben Forsberg is an ordinary guy, leading an ordinary life - or so he thinks. Everything changes the day two government agents appear unexpectedly at his door. Ben's business card has been found in the wallet of one of America's most dangerous assassins, who has just been shot dead. Whoever killed him has now set their sights on Ben. With no idea why he has been targeted, Ben has to act quickly. And in a world where suddenly nothing is as it seems, and no one can be trusted, Ben's only option is to run for his life.

Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder, Run, and Bel Canto, examines her deepest commitments-- to writing, family, friends, dogs, books, and her husband-- creating a resonant portrait of her life.

A dynamic, experiential, and intimate portrait that explores the many sides of the legendary Southern city and country music capital. Celebrates Nashvillians' beloved locales and events, both established and new, that are the heart of the city's character. Includes more than 150 black-and-white and color photographs.

"Inspired by the birth of her daughter, Emma, and dedicated to her departed mother, Regarding Emma is a provocative collection of complex, allegorical images of girls and women and the mysterious world they inhabit."-Paul Brown, Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Paul Brown Seattle Post-Intelligencer 20031001) For more than fifteen years, Melissa Ann Pinney has been making photographs of girls and women, from infancy to old age, to portray how feminine identity is constructed, taught, and communicated. Her work depicts not only the rites of American womanhood--a prom, a wedding, a baby shower, a tea party--but the informal passages of girlhood: combing a doll's hair, doing laundry with a mother, smoking a cigarette at a state fair. With each view, we gain a greater understanding of the connections between mother and daughter, and by extension the larger world of family, friends, and society. Pinney's approach to interpreting girlhood became more complicated and complex when her daughter, Emma, was born eight years ago. Emma's childhood evoked in Pinney her own girlhood and gave her work new meaning and purpose. Ultimately, Regarding Emma shares with all of us the incremental and the ritualistic changes that take place in a woman's life over time. Her photographs are artistic and social documents that reveal the subtle and bold aspects of feminine identity--documents whose reach will extend well beyond the walls of America's leading galleries and museums into the hearts and homes of everyday Americans.