Ann Patchett and the stories that rescue us

In “Whistler,” a chance encounter sends a woman back to the defining chapter of her childhood.

The Tuesday Review

(Harper)

Ann Patchett’s new novel, Whistler, is that loveliest of summer gifts, a story of reconciliation, of old affections renewed, of a family’s circumference enlarged. Fans of the author’s previous work will open these pages like an old shoebox of family photos. Newcomers — how I envy them those first moments — will discover a write…