Commonwealth

Product Description

A powerful story of two families brought together by beauty & torn apart by tragedy, the new novel by the Orange Prize-winning author of Bel Canto & State of Wonder is her most astonishing yet It is 1964: Bert Cousins, the deputy district attorney, shows up at Franny Keating`s christening party uninvited, bottle of gin in h&. As the cops of Los Angeles drink, talk & dance into the June afternoon, he notices a heart-stoppingly beautiful woman. When Bert kisses Beverly Keating, his host`s wife, the new baby pressed between them, he sets in motion the joining of two families whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later. In 1988, Franny Keating, now twenty-four, has dropped out of law school & is working as a cocktail waitress in Chicago. When she meets one of her idols, the famous author Leon Posen, & tells him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story. Franny never dreams that the consequences of this encounter will extend beyond her own life into those of her scattered siblings & parents. Told with equal measures of humour & heartbreak, Commonwealth is a powerful & tender tale of family, betrayal & the far-reaching bonds of love & responsibility. A meditation on inspiration, interpretation & the ownership of stories, it is Ann Patchett`s most astonishing work to date.