This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

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A&C Black, Jan 1, 2013 - Biography & Autobiography - 306 pages
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an irresistible blend of literature and memoir revealing the big experiences and little moments that shaped Ann Patchett as a daughter, wife, friend and writer. Here, Ann Patchett shares entertaining and moving stories about her tumultuous childhood, her painful early divorce, the excitement of selling her first book, driving a Winnebago from Montana to Yellowstone Park, her joyous discovery of opera, scaling a six-foot wall in order to join the Los Angeles Police Department, the gradual loss of her beloved grandmother, starting her own bookshop in Nashville, her love for her very special dog and, of course, her eventual happy marriage. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is a memoir both wide ranging and deeply personal, overflowing with close observation and emotional wisdom, told with wit, honesty and irresistible warmth.
 

Contents

Nonfiction an Introduction
1
How to Read a Christmas Story
11
The Sacrament of Divorce
61
The Paris Match
70
The Best Seat in the House
81
My Road to Hell Was Paved
88
Tennessee
101
On Responsibility
109
The Love Between the Two Women Is Not Normal
172
The Right to Read
186
Do Not Disturb
195
Introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2006
202
Love Sustained
211
The Bookstore Strikes Back
225
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
238
Our Deluge Drop by Drop
272

Fact vs Fiction
154
My Life in Sales
163
The Mercies
285
Copyright

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About the author (2013)

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.

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