The international bestselling writer Ann Patchett has been described as 'one of the foremost chroniclers of the burdens of emotional inventory and its central place in American lives' and 'a master of her art' (Observer). In her new collection, with her trademark blend of wryness, intelligence and wisdom, she explores family, friendship, marriage, failure, success - and how all these forces have shaped her as a writer. Ranging from the personal - her portrait in triptych of the three men she called her fathers, to unexpectedly falling into a friendship with Tom Hanks, to how to answer when someone asks why you don't have children - to the sublime - exploring the Harvard Museum of Natural History before its doors open, or the perfection to be found on a single page of Eudora Welty - each essay shows Patchett's strikingly original perspective, and the magical sleight of hand with which she transforms the particular into the universal"