Literary Fiction | Book Chatter

Whistler
By Ann Patchett
Harper, June 2026, 304pp.

The Short of It:

Reflective and intimate.

The Rest of It:

Daphne Fuller and her husband, Jonathan, are visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art when she notices a familiar face: an older, white-haired gentleman silently following them. Could it be? Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who was married to her mother for a little over a year, is suddenly standing there, in the flesh, after all these years.

What follows is an intimate look at love and what makes a family. Sometimes it’s not a perfect package wrapped in a bow. Sometimes love can exist outside of what’s traditional. Sometimes an accident can bring people together. Whistler is filled with beautiful, poignant moments and memories of loving relationships, even in the face of hardship.

Readers might ask, “Well, what’s it about? What’s with the horse on the cover?” Well, it’s not about a horse. It’s about love and connections that don’t always fit perfectly together but are meaningful nonetheless. It’s about the strength of memories and how you can lean on them when needed. It’s about beautiful interactions between the people you love.

Patchett always writes with such passion, and her stories always hit home for me. Open up Whistler and you’ll find comfort. Reading it was like snuggling up with your favorite blanket on a rainy day. It just hits that sweet spot.

Highly recommend.

Source: Borrowed
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Give Me Everything You’ve Got
By Imogen Crimp
Henry Holt & Co., July 2026, 304 pp.

The Short of It:

Mind games. Who will win?

The Rest of It:

Ruby, an up-and-coming filmmaker, finds herself in an enviable position. Ellen, her idol and mentor, invites her to her palatial country home for a bit of respite, and the opportunity to focus on the script she’s working on. It’s a beautiful, hot summer, and the idea of lounging by the pool with nothing but her writing to focus on is exactly what Ruby needs.

So she thinks.

Enter Lara, Ellen’s twenty-year-old wayward daughter, who glides around the property without a care in the world. Sent home from school and pressured by Ellen to get her life together, Lara is rebellious at best.

Ruby is instantly caught off guard. How will it work having another person in the house, someone wandering around aimlessly, drinking, smoking, and tempting Ruby to do the same?

Ruby quietly observes the interactions between Ellen and her daughter, and their tension immediately puts her on edge. But as soon as Ruby settles in, Ellen leaves on a business trip, leaving the two of them alone in the house.

What follows is a seductive story about temptation, desire, and need. Hopes and dreams? Possibly, but mostly, it’s about mind games of the push-and-pull variety. Ruby is lured in, only to be pushed away. The relationships in this story are complicated and twisted.

I found the story extremely readable, even though the dialogue is presented without punctuation and reads like a stream of consciousness.

Everyone has a motive for being in that house. It’s human nature to take what we can from a situation, but are we better off afterward? Was the experience enough to satisfy?

This story has a lot to say about art, power, friendship, and the definition of love.

Highly recommend.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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