Whistler
The new international bestseller from the author of Tom Lake and The Dutch House
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- €16.99
Publisher Description
THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING NEW NOVEL FROM THE PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE DUTCH HOUSE AND TOM LAKE
'Few writers are more adept than Patchett at delineating the collisions between present and past' Observer
'Whistler is top-shelf comfort food, the literary equivalent of pricey ice-cream' Guardian, Book of the Day
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When Daphne notices an older gentleman following her around the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, she doesn't expect it to be Eddie – her former stepfather.
Married to her mother for a short time when Daphne was nine, she hasn't seen Eddie for many years; not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives.
Meeting again now, Daphne and Eddie feel that time has fallen away. Their earlier relationship was brief but had a profound impact on both of them. Together, they consider not only their past, but the joys of the present and their commitment to face the future together.
A moving, luminous story about how family, memory and love endures, Whistler paints an intimate portrait of how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.
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'This generous-hearted, clever and poignantly revealing tale feels another sure-fire hit. Spend a day on the couch in its warm, riveting company and you won't regret it' Times
'A quietly compelling story about the power of familial love to transcend time and blood' Harper's Bazaar, Best Books of 2026
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Patchett follows 2023's Tom Lake with another perfectly executed and quietly profound family drama. Daphne, a 53-year-old happily married English teacher, is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City with her husband, Jonathan, a retired hospital administrator, when she runs into Eddie Triplett, who was once her stepfather. Though he was only married to her mother, Abigail, for two years, Daphne and her sister built a life-changing amount of trust with him. Abigail and Eddie abruptly divorced following a car accident in which he and Daphne drove off the road in a snowstorm in Winchester, Mass., which resulted in nine-year-old Daphne climbing out of the wrecked car to find help. The story takes place in the weeks after her reunion with Eddie, as Daphne learns the truth of why he and her mother divorced and revisits the accident and its reverberations. Somewhere along the way, the novel becomes a meditation on mortality, long marriages, and what it means to love well. "It's an awful business.... Loving another person," Abigail tells Daphne, reflecting on her three marriages, each with their share of successes and failures. Daphne also reflects on how Eddie, when they were trapped in the car, told her an intense story that still haunts her, about a rancher named Mary who hovers on the brink of death after an accident. Like many of Patchett's works, this beautiful and generous novel feels effortless, never straining for effect. It's one of her best.
