Ann Patchett opened a bookstore everyone said would fail. Now it’s a blueprint

When she isn’t working on a novel, Ann Patchett is often thinking of what she can do for others: maybe coming up with a blurb for Douglas Stuart, or recording a video birthday message for fellow author-bookseller Emma Straub, or beginning an interview with a plug for another admired peer. “The new Liz Strout book is the best,” she says of Elizabeth Strout’s “The Things We Never Say.” “You know, every single book she publishes, you just think, ‘Oh, well, she can’t possibly do that again.’ And then she comes out with another book and it’s even better.” At 62, Patchett is the rare and fortunate writer whose words resonate among friends and strangers alike. She owns one of the country’s signature independent bookstores, Parnassus Books, with customers ranging from Nashville’s book lovers to Tom Hanks. She’s also a popular and prize-winning novelist whose new books are inevitably among the year’s most anticipated, and whose older ones, including the acclaimed “Bel Canto,” continue to sell. In 2021, she received a National Humanities Medal for “putting into words the beauty, pain, and complexity of human nature.” Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages, but her home is in Nashville, where she spent part of her childhood and now lives with her husband, physician Karl VanDevender. Patchett spoke at Parnassus with The Associated Press on a sunny weekday morning, shortly before opening time. She also met with staff members gathered at the center of the 4,800-square-foot store to discuss upcoming events, and indulged the occasional interruption by one of the employee-owned “shop dogs” who hurry about like bargain-seeking customers. The new book is called ‘Whistler’ Patchett is here early to talk about “Whistler,” which comes out Tuesday. Like “Bel Canto,” “State of Wonder” and other Patchett novels, it’s a story of improbable meetings and deepening bonds. In this case, 53-year-old Daphne Fuller and her husband encoun