BHWC members and community friends, be among the first to read Partita, available October 6th and BHWC’s selection for our next book club meeting on November 17th. Join us for a lively discussion moderated by Literary Affairs’ professional facilitator, Ona Russell PhD in literature from UCSD.
Partita is a story of a brief, passionate, life-changing love affair, wrapped up in what might be the greatest romance of all: our eternal human longing for art and beauty.
Author Barbara Ellen Kingsolver is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. In 2023, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel Demon Copperhead. After winning for The Lacuna in 2010 and Demon Copperhead in 2023, Kingsolver became the first author to win the Women’s Prize for Fiction twice. Since 1993, each one of her book titles have been on the New York Times Best Seller list. Kingsolver was raised in rural Kentucky, lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood, and she currently lives in Appalachia. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona, and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels.
Reviews
“A brilliantly prismatic story. . . . Kingsolver is one of the finest living writers, and her latest will join Demon Copperhead and The Poisonwood Bible as another modern classic.” – Library Journal (starred review)
“Brilliant, affecting work from one of contemporary literature’s masters. . . . A fierce belief that great art is for everyone joins Kingsolver’s familiar preoccupations with class distinctions, social injustice, and the complex bonds of family and community in a tender denouement.” – Kirkus (starred review)
“Barbara Kingsolver has done it again. In this masterfully orchestrated novel, an unexpected call forces a once-ascendent pianist to revisit the affair that reshaped her youth and the career that vanished alongside it. . . . Partita refuses easy distinctions between destiny and choice, showing how class background, family damage, and thwarted ambition can keep shaping us long after we believe their power has faded.” – Oprah Daily
“Kingsolver presents an enrapturing, brilliantly plotted, deeply personal, and profoundly insightful celebration of the life of the land, the skills and struggles of farmers, and the transcendent power of art to bring us together, make us feel ‘more alive,’ and make us whole.” – Booklist
“An engrossing story. . . . Kingsolver shines in her character work. . . . This tragic story of long-held secrets will keep readers turning pages.” – Publishers Weekly (Top 10 Fall Fiction)
“From the author of the much-loved Demon Copperhead (who doesn’t have this in their top 10 list?) comes a new book that feels like both a continuation and a departure. . . . The story was born out of Kingsolver’s love of both language and classical music; Partita weaves the two together with her usual grace and expert touch with words.” – Elle
“Wrestles with the questions that have fueled [Kingsolver’s] whole career–namely, who is art for, what makes it good, and what can it actually accomplish?” —The New Yorker
“Moving. . . . Expertly interweaving themes of class and healthcare, Kingsolver grapples with the question of artistic ambition versus family obligation.” – Town and Country
