It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together. At the center of the novel is a traumatic loss that profoundly affects each family member in. Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett is a story of two families that unfolds over the course of 50 years. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another. When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them. Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Ann Patchett, the New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth and State of Wonder, returns with her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story.

Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly-thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families. One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. The acclaimed, bestselling author-winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize-tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families’ lives. A warm, funny, and keenly perceptive novel about the life cycle of one family-as the kids become parents, grandchildren become teenagers, and a matriarch confronts the legacy of her mistakes.

The commonwealth ann patchett summary