These Precious Days
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
A BARACK OBAMA TOP BOOK OF 2021
'A heartfelt and witty collection of essays on everything from marriage and knitting to the inevitability of death' Guardian
'A pitch-perfect collection ... She can turn a sentence like no one else: her writing is clear, honest, witty, and just full of unsentimental humanity' Nigella Lawson
'Profound and clever and funny and wise' Meg Mason, author of Sorrow & Bliss
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An irresistible collection of essays and memoir from the internationally bestselling, Women's Prize-winning author of The Dutch House
'Any story that starts will also end.' As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this as she explores family, friendship, marriage, failure, success, and what it all means.
Ranging from the personal – her portrait of the three men she called her fathers; how a chance encounter with Tom Hanks led to one of the most important friendships of her life; how to answer when someone asks why you don't have children – to the sublime – the unexpected influence of Snoopy; the importance of knitting; the pleasure to be found in children's books – each essay transforms the particular into the universal, letting us all see our own worlds anew.
Illuminating, penetrating, funny and generous, These Precious Days is joyful time spent in the company of one of our greatest living authors.
'Patchett's essays are both sharp and humane ... like a hugely enjoyable conversation with a particularly brilliant friend' Sadie Jones
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Anyone who’s read novels such as Commonwealth or the Pulitzer-nominated The Dutch House will have been dazzled by Ann Patchett’s skill for exploring love, family and friendship with sharp wit and poignant incision—all while rendering her observations in gorgeous prose. That continues in this collection of the American author’s essay writing, with Patchett making unique, warm-souled sense of life through a prism of subjects as diverse as knitting, fatherhood and the Peanuts comic strips. The crowning glory is the essay that gives this wonderful book its title—an account of a remarkable, life-changing friendship that Patchett forged with Tom Hanks’ assistant.
