Commonwealth

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Commonwealth
336 pages; Harper
In works that resonate with quiet power and a reverence for life’s deepest mysteries, Patchett is an adept and nuanced explorer of the heart, a writer who exposes her characters’ flaws and foibles in ways that make us love them all the more. In her latest novel, she excavates the harrowing histories of two households torn apart by adultery, and the awkwardly reconstituted families that emerge. A perspicacious novel that cuts to the bone, and makes us at once ache for youth and feel grateful that its sweet pain is behind us.