As I have been with so many other authors, I am slowly working my way through Ann Patchett’s oeuvre, starting years ago with Bel Canto. Whistler ties with Tom Lake as my—so far—all-time favorites of her works. Tom Lake is a quiet story. Whistler tells of a family fractured by divorce and somehow winds its way into being uplifting and healing while incorporating the story of a woman and her horse.
Middle-aged Daphne and her much-older spouse, Jonathan, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New Work when her husband notes an older man stalking them. When approached, he turns out to be Eddie, Daphne’s stepfather (for all of a year) when she was nine years old. Though the two were exceptionally close at the time, she hasn’t seen him since the divorce. Immediately, they restart their interrupted relationship, becoming close again. As they do so, they slowly explore choices they made—or were made for them, especially in the case of the young Daphne—and the consequences of those choices.
The book, with the exception of the story of the horse and its owner and a life-threatening adventure which both Daphne and Eddie go through, is full of quiet yet consequential moments. It’s a seemingly simple novel about love, loss, bravery, endurance, and survival. It’s truly a lovely book that will move readers to tears.
(Despite the horse on the cover, this is not a Western, and the horse’s tale encompasses very few pages in the novel).
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Whistler (Harper, June 2, 2026) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my reviews of other of Patchett’s works here:
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