August 2026
Whistler
By Ann Patchett
The past arrives unbidden into the life of 53-year-old Daphne Fuller, the main character of Ann Patchett’s new novel WHISTLER, a tender, warm-hearted family drama that explores the possibilities contained within chance encounters, the cost of repression, and the power of fully embracing the complexities of life. While walking around New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art with her husband Jonathan, Daphne encounters an older man she recognizes as the stepfather who left her family under fraught circumstances when she was nine years old. As Daphne revives her relationship with book editor Eddie Triplett in the weeks that follow, a second storyline begins to unfold documenting the frightening car crash that led to Eddie’s disappearance. The best thing in this beautifully poignant book is the wonderful Eddie, one of the loveliest and most engaging characters in the Patchett literary universe. “People are art,” Eddie says, “it’s enough just to watch.” Chills!
READ IF YOU LIKE: THE CORRESPONDENT (Virginia Evans), THEO OF GOLDEN (Allen Levi), BUCKEYE (Patrick Ryan)