I’ve loved some of Patchett’s books so I was disappointed not to love this one when it came out last year. But when I saw that the audiobook, read by Tom Hanks, was available on Libby (the free public library app), I decided to give it another try. This time I did love it.

The story focuses on a brother and sister who grow up in a grand glass house on an estate outside Philadelphia. Their mother walks out. Their father remarries. The past haunts them into middle age.