When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn't seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again.
Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It's a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.
Reviews:
Patchett is even more entrancing, radiant, and heart-seizing than she is in Tom Lake in this tale of complicated marriages, secret love, fear, fury, courage, and reconciliation. - Booklist (starred review)
Like many of Patchett's works, this beautiful and generous novel feels effortless, never straining for effect. It's one of her best. - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
An evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling. - Kirkus (starred review)
Patchett is a clarion voice who can persuade any reader to devour her books without pause. Her latest is no exception, with strong characters, compelling circumstances, and the one detail on which lives can pivot to ruin or to happiness. Patchett devises for her characters an incident with edge-of-one's-seat suspense in this novel overflowing with rewards for all. - Library Journal
"A modern family's platonic, later-in-life love story. . . . intimate and entertaining [with a] generous worldview." - Helen Schulman, The New York Times