Commonwealth

The book that really stood out for me was Ann Patchett's novel Commonwealth. It's so beautifully structured, and the characters are subtle and three-dimensional. If she were a man, I'm sure she'd be lauded as one of the Great American Novelists (Jojo Moyes Washington Post Books of the Year)

An outstanding novel ... The opening is a show stopper . Patchett is a pleasure to read: there is a no-fuss casualness to the prose that is only possible when a writer is in control of every word and she is master of her art . What is so skilful is the way Patchett makes no moral judgments ... Brilliant (Observer)

The opening scene .. is a faultless set piece ... Her prose is equally powerful when she's evoking a 1970s summer in Virginia . Patchett deftly summons up a simmering childhood anger and dangerously ricocheting energy (The Times)

Dazzling . sharply observed, ripe with humour, laden with significance . Patchett weaves a complex structure . Yet always feels in control . She is adept at showing, not telling, her characters shimmer with life-likeness, and she pulls you into every one of her vibrantly drawn scenes with great ease . The combination of lightness, warmth and remarkable incisiveness creates a novel that is life-affirming and compulsively readable (Sunday Times 2016-09-11)

The book flows easily between narrators, constantly switching from past to present, and slowly revealing what happened that summer, allowing Patchett to play with memory and perspective to surprisingly moving effect ... Commonwealth is a book about relationships and the obligations they bring .. Poignant ... funny ... An engaging novel that draws you in with sharp observation, a gin-fuelled plot written in beautiful prose and convincing dialogue. You miss the characters once it's over (Evening Standard)

Commonwealth is full of heart, and is Patchett's most complex and emotionally suspenseful novel. She never hits a wrong note although she conjures with many deftly drawn characters. The opening chapter is one of the best party-scene seductions ever written (Louise Erdrich, author of The Beet Queen)

A deft craftsman . Patchett ultimately wins the reader over with her perceptive qualities, alluring characters and undertone of humour . In Commonwealth, Patchett's nimble storytelling floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee (Literary Review 2016-09-01)

Patchett writes excellently and seemingly artlessly, her many sub-stories wandering in and out of each other like rivulets in a stream. Some characters swim into brilliant focus, while others remain dimly lit in the shadows, but Patchett boldly avoids resolving any of it and what emerges instead is the captivating music of life's random, relentless pulse (Daily Mail 2016-09-02)

So clear and clean and at the top of her game ... It is just so masterfully done. The sweep of it and the subtlety of the ideas (Esther Freud)

Beautiful (Katie Roiphe Observer)

A No. 1 New York Times bestseller, the powerful story of two families brought together by beauty and torn apart by tragedy, the new novel by the Orange Prize-winning author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder is her most astonishing yet