Ann Patchett is the author of six novels and three books of non-fiction. She has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction three times; with The Magician's Assistant in 1998, winning the prize with Bel Canto in 2002, and was most recently shortlisted with State of Wonder in 2012. She is also the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2012. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband, Karl, and their dog Sparky.

An irresistible collection of essays from the internationally bestselling, Women's Prize-winner author of The Dutch House

Funny, tender and wise, and exquisitely packaged, These Precious Days will be the perfect gift in the run up to Christmas 2021; ideal for fans of Zadie Smith's Intimations, Maggie O'Farrell's I Am, I Am, I Am, Marilynne Robinson's What Are We Doing Here? and Hilary Mantel's Mantel Pieces

The international bestselling writer Ann Patchett has been described as 'one of the foremost chroniclers of the burdens of emotional inventory and its central place in American lives' and 'a master of her art' (Observer). In her new collection, with her trademark blend of wryness, intelligence and wisdom, she explores family, friendship, marriage, failure, success - and how all these forces have shaped her as a writer.Ranging from the personal - her portrait in triptych of the three men she called her fathers, to unexpectedly falling into a friendship with Tom Hanks, to how to answer when someone asks why you don't have children - to the sublime - exploring the Harvard Museum of Natural History before its doors open, or the perfection to be found on a single page of Eudora Welty - each essay shows Patchett's strikingly original perspective, and the magical sleight of hand with which she transforms the particular into the universal.Illuminating, penetrating, funny and generous, These Precious Days is joyful time spent in the company of one of our greatest living authors.