Commonwealth, Ann Patchett'Dazzling The combination of lightness, warmth and remarkable incisiveness creates a novel that is life affirming and compulsively readable' Sunday Times It is 1964: Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited and notices a heart stoppingly beautiful woman. When he kisses Beverly Keating, his host's wife, he sets in motion the joining of two families, whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later. In 1988,

For over 45 years

tired of having to be tough

A fascinating

In this alternately witty and heartbreaking debut novel

and become the visionary you were meant to be

Informed by Critchley's acute insight

the thief and the infamous assassin

But he is immediately confronted with a wall of silence

the PEN AMERICA OPEN BOOK AWARD

one she knows no one in her upper class set will understand - least of all Laurence

it will also have a readership that extends well beyond politics

Originally published in Italy in 1928