Revisit Patchett’s novels before she visits Cedar Rapids

A middle-age woman pushes a young man out of harm's way during a blinding Boston snowstorm and is herself hit by the oncoming car. This spontaneous heroic act sets off a chain reaction within two families whose characters and story you'll never forget after reading Ann Patchett's “Run.”

The award-winning writer who will appear in Cedar Rapids on June 7 as part of the Metro Library Network's Out Loud! Author series also has penned several other distinguished novels and non-fiction works, which are available at Cedar Rapids Public Library locations.

Patchett is perhaps best known for “Bel Canto,” which won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award, among others. But it was her first novel, “The Patron Saint of Liars” that garnered national attention. Primarily set in Habit, Ky., at a Catholic home for unwed mothers, the narrative follows runaway Rose's arrival there, her decision to keep baby Cecilia, and work at St. Elizabeth's. Her relationships with the nuns, her child, a new man and her struggle with her past constitute the core of the best-selling debut novel.

Exotic characters and intricate, unpredictable plots are hallmarks of Patchett's “The Magician's Assistant” and “State of Wonder.” Both are pleasures to read, though in vastly different ways, and both contain mysteries that enthrall audiences. Why would a talented illusionist leave his Nebraska home and family members, telling new friends his kin had died in a car crash? And in “State of Wonder” how will research scientist Marina Singh navigate the dangerous Amazon in order to pin down a colleague gone rogue - one who may have the key to developing a valuable new drug?

Patchett's non-fiction works are as insightful and enlightening as her fiction. In “Truth and Beauty: A Friendship” she details her Iowa connection, having spent two years at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. The book is about the close friendship she and poet Lucy Grealy shared, beginning at the workshop and lasting until Grealy's death in 2002. Descriptions of their time together at the UI, subsequent correspondence and the downward spiral of Lucy's health reveal highs and lows of two literary lives.

Students everywhere look forward to graduation. But for many, the future is uncertain. In the thought provoking essay “What Now?' Patchett writes of excitement overshadowing fear. She discusses her career path, which has taken many detours on the road to literary success.

--- Melia Tatman is a librarian at the Cedar Rapids Public Library