Ann Patchett and the late Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writers Workshop, began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. In Grealys critically acclaimed memoir, Autobiography of a Face, she wrote about losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, years of chemotherapy and radiation, and endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty, the story isnt Lucys life or Anns life, but the parts of their lives they shared. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years, from the long winters of the Midwest, to surgical wards, to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs, and despair, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined . . . and what happens when one is left behind.
This is a tender, brutal book about loving the person we cannot save. It is about loyalty, and being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.
“Unforgettable...carefully rendered and breathtaking.”
“{a} loving, clear-sighted portrayal..”
“An inspired duet...riveting.”
“A contemporary story of friendship and the writing life at once intense, honest, and heartbreaking. Highly recommended.”
“...lyrical, lovely...Patchett has preserved her friend’s talent in this book, and provided more evidence of her own.”
Ann Patchett is the author of five novels: the New York Times bestselling Run; The Patron Saint of Liars, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Taft, which won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize; The Magician's Assistant; and Bel Canto, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize, the BookSense Book of the Year, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the author of two works of nonfiction: the New York Times bestselling Truth & Beauty and What now? Patchett has written for many publications, including the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, Gourmet, the New York Times, Vogue, and the Washington Post. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Distributor: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: 04-05-2005
Pages: 272
Measurements: 8in X 5.3125in X 0.612613in X 7.60oz
