Book Review: The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett

The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
Publisher: ‎ Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: May 1, 1992
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

St. Elizabeth’s, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth’s extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose’s past won’t be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth’s; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving.

When Rose discovers she’s pregnant, she knows that she needs to get out of her marriage. She doesn’t love her husband or want to be married anymore and she doesn’t want to be a mother either. She sets off from California to Kentucky for a home for unwed mothers. She doesn’t tell her husband or her mother she’s pregnant or where she’s going – lies. She tells the nuns at the home that her husband died – a lie. Soon the lies are piling up.

I dug deep into my TBR shelves for this book. I loved Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House and have been meaning to read more of her books. The Patron Saint of Liars, which is her first book, did not disappoint. Patchett is a master of character development. I liked how each of the main characters had their own section in the book and their own unique voice. I felt like I knew them inside and out.

Highly recommended.