Best-selling novelist Ann Patchett€s second, "strikingly original"* novel tells the moving story of John Nickel, an ex€“jazz musician who wanted nothing more than to be a good father. When his lover takes away his son, he€s left only with his Beale Street bar. He hires a young waitress named Fay Taft, who brings with her a desperate, dangerous brother, Carl, and the possibility of new intimacy. Nickel finds himself consumed with Fay and Carl€s dead father€" Taft€"obsessing over and reconstructing the life of a man he never met.
A stunning artistic achievement,
Taft confirms Ann Patchett€s standing as one of the most gifted writers of her generation and reminds us of our deepest instincts to protect the people we love.
