Ann Patchett Interview

Bel Canto

• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 24 mins)
• By Ann Patchett
• Narrated By Anna Fields
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Somewhere in South America at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening, until a band of terrorists breaks in, taking the entire party hostage.

What Now?

• UNABRIDGED (53 mins)
• By Ann Patchett
• Narrated By Ann Patchett

Based on her lauded commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College, this stirring essay by best-selling author Ann Patchett offers hope and inspiration for anyone at a crossroads, whether graduating, changing careers, or transitioning from one life stage to another. With wit and candor, Patchett tells her own story of attending college, graduating, and struggling with the inevitable question, "What now?"

Truth & Beauty: A Friendship

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 11 mins)
• By Ann Patchett
• Narrated By Ann Patchett
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The author of Bel Canto, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize, and long-running New York Times best seller, turns to nonfiction in a moving chronicle of her decades-long friendship with the critically acclaimed and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy.

The Patron Saint of Liars

• UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 10 mins)
• By Ann Patchett
• Narrated By Julia Gibson
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

St. Elizabeth's is a home for unwed mothers in the 1960s. Life there is not unpleasant, and for most, it is temporary. Not so for Rose, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed. She plans to give up her baby because she knows she cannot be the mother it needs.

But St. Elizabeth's is near a healing spring, and when Rose's time draws near, she cannot go through with her plans, not all of them.

The Magician's Assistant

• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 9 mins)
• By Ann Patchett
• Narrated By Karen Ziemba
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

When Parsifal, a handsome and charming magician, dies suddenly, his widow Sabine - who was also his faithful assistant for 20 years - learns that the family he claimed to have lost in a tragic accident is very much alive and well.