Heidi Ross
Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett, Nashville’s own international best-selling author and co-owner of Parnassus Books, returned last month with her seventh novel, The Dutch House.
But the book, whose audio version will be narrated by Tom Hanks, almost didn’t see the light of day.
“I was 10 pages from the end, and I thought ‘No one is ever going to read this,’” says Patchett. “And I deleted it. It was just gone.”
With a deadline looming, she was sure she wouldn’t be able to rewrite the book in time for publication. Then last Christmas, Patchett came down with a six-week case of bronchitis.
“I couldn’t go up and down the stairs, but I could still think and I could write,” she says. So, in just a matter of months, Patchett rewrote her entire book.
InThe Dutch House, siblings Danny and Maeve are abandoned by their mother and left with their dismissive father and his new cold wife who wants nothing but to see them gone. When their father dies unexpectedly, the once-wealthy siblings are thrust into poverty after their stepmother takes everything, including the Dutch House, their childhood home. As they grow into adulthood, Danny and Maeve must confront the past—and the house—that’s loomed so large in their minds.
Age: 55
Finding inspiration in Zadie Smith: While conducting an interview with author Zadie Smith, Smith shared with Patchett that autobiographical fiction wasn’t always about writing what happened but was also about writing what she was afraid of. The idea struck a chord with Patchett and helped inspire The Dutch House. “I wanted to write a book about a really horrible stepmother,” she says, “because my biggest fear is that I would be a horrible stepmother.”
On returning to first-person narration: The Dutch House is Patchett’s first novel written in first person in more than 20 years. But it wasn’t exactly like riding a bicycle.“After all these years of writing in third person,” she says, “it really, really did me in. It killed me it was so hard.”
Commissioning the cover art: Patchett worked with local artist Noah Saterstrom to create the cover art for The Dutch House. “The painting [of Maeve] is mentioned in two different places in the novel. I sent him those pages and asked if he could do it,” says Patchett. “He did it in four days. Since then we’ve become great friends.”
The Dutch House (Harper) is available now and can be purchased at Parnassus Books. (3900 Hillsboro Pike, Ste. 14, 615-953-2243; parnassusbooks.net)