Taft / Patchett, Ann

Best-selling novelist Ann Patchett s second, "strikingly original"* novel tells the moving story of John Nickel, an ex jazz musician who wanted nothing more than to be a good father. When his lover takes away his son, he s left only with his Beale Street bar. He hires a young waitress named Fay Taft, who brings with her a desperate, dangerous brother, Carl, and the possibility of new intimacy. Nickel finds himself consumed with Fay and Carl s dead father Taft obsessing over and reconstructing the life of a man he never met.

A stunning artistic achievement,

Taft confirms Ann Patchett s standing as one of the most gifted writers of her generation and reminds us of our deepest instincts to protect the people we love.

*Kirkus Reviews