Ann Patchett is arguably one of the most popular contemporary American authors, penning multiple best-selling and award-winning novels. She is also an advocate of independent bookstores and literacy and has appeared in this capacity on NPR, The Colbert Report, Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, and The Martha Stewart Show. Her books explore themes relating to family dynamics, love, friendship, and identity. Her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars, was published in 1992 and is the coming-of-age story of a pregnant woman at a home for unwed mothers. Her second novel, Taft (1994), tells the story of a former jazz musician who must reform his understanding of family and friendship. The Magician’s Assistant is Patchett’s third novel and was published in 1997.

Patchett’s fourth novel, Bel Canto (2001), received the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize for Fiction, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Bel Canto is the novel that brought Patchett’s work to international prominence. Imbued with elements of the historical fiction genre and set in South America, Bel Canto tells the story of an opera singer and her wealthy and admiring