The acclaimed, bestselling author—winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize—tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families’ lives.

One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.

Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Reader Reviews

Annet

(5/5)

161

Nov 21, 2024

Well, I simply loved this book. 4.5 going on 5. One of the highlights in 2016. Wonderful storytelling about two families getting 'intertwined' by changed marriages, affected by a family tragedy that hit them all in some way. The story is written going to and fro in time, and we follow several family members in their personal lives at some point in time. It's a story full of emotion, tragedy, love... Beautiful & heartfelt... and highly recommended. Thanks to all Goodreads friends who brought me t...

Jen

(4/5)

156

So, this is what happens when one too many gin and orange juices flow. At a baptism. Not the typical kind. The fun kind. One with lots of friends and family and somehow booze gets into the mix and what started off as a ritual turned into a party then spice in some infidelity and the wheels are put into motion for a family life detour.This is a story about families- their dysfunction, destruction, and loyalty. Truths are exposed after the publication of a novel that is loosely based on the 2 fami...

emma

119

Sometimes I do dumb things, and sometimes it works out for me.More accurately: I spend 99% of my time being an idiot on this website, and I keep getting rewarded for it. For example.In early 2020, I read The Dutch House after being full-on fixated with the cover for almost a year, and I liked it. I didn't five stars level love it, but I gave it 4.5 and wrote a big review and blah blah blah.So the normal thing to do in this scenario would be keep the author, Ann Patchett, on my radar, and move on...

Paromjit

187

This is a moving novel about the blended modern family inspired by Ann Patchett's own personal family history. In the early 1960s, the married Bert Cousins is a deputy DA, out of sorts with his lot in life and family, and looking for something more. He rolls up uninvited to Franny Keating's christening party, and oiled by alcohol, falls in love with and kisses the beautiful Beverly Keating. This leads to the disintegration of the two respective families and a catalogue of repercussions down the

Dianne

(3/5)

176

I am afraid I am going to be the outlier on this one - I wanted to love it; I was so sure I would love it that I purchased the hardcover copy to cherish, which I rarely do. I adore Ann Patchett! I just could not connect with this family drama or any of the characters. I can't fault her writing or the story or how it was laid out; it just was not compelling to me. I liked it in a very mild way, but I am not sure I'll remember much about it in a few months.I'm sorry, fellow Patchett lovers! Not my...

Roxane

267

I loved this book. Gorgeously written, as is always the case with Ann Patchett. There is an ambitious narrative structure that, at times, gets away from the writer, but still, this is so so good.

Will Byrnes

510

When Bert Cousins saw Beverly Keating it was love at first sight. Never mind that they met at the christening party for her second child. Never mind that Bert had a wife and several progeny of his own. He wanted this incredibly beautiful woman. This was the start of his life. It was also the end of two marriages, beginning a ripple that would continue spreading its impact over the next half century. Jump all those fifty years, more or less. Beverly’s ex, Fix Keating, the one she had left for Ber...

Elyse Walters

521

Wow....I have spent hours thinking about this book. The characters are deep in my mind. There will be NO SPOILERS in my review!!! NONE!!!!If you need a 'little' information to know weather you want to risk reading an Ann Patchett book, which I clearly do not understand.....lol,the blurb gives enough details about this story. I'm only going to spit out random thoughts.... ( a discussion group would be enriching....one I'd love to be part of) I wasn't 100% crazy about every scene - every minute of...

Noel Luis

129

SPOILER FREE REVIEWCommonwealth is a story about people's stories. There's a loose thread that binds all the tales together, but for the most part each one is treated separately. There are no surprise endings, no hidden lessons, no zombie apocalypse. Just the slow burn of daily life as the characters make mistakes and learn from them, trying to piece together a meaningful existence like the rest of us.In other words, profound, but way too realistic.How realistic? Well, there's a chapter about a

Larry H

126

I'd rate this 4.5 stars."The christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin."How can you resist a novel that starts like that?Bert Cousins' decision to bring a bottle of gin to a christening party for Fix and Beverly Keating's infant daughter Franny, a party to which he wasn't even invited, is much more than a social faux pas. Showing up at that party makes Bert realize he wants more out of his life than his job as a deputy DA, and his wife and three kids (with one more on th...

Diane S ☔

122

4+ Early 1960, a christening party for baby Franny, where a spark will be ignited that will set up a chain of events that will echo down through the decades. Four adults, six children will be affected, and we will follow them as they try to maneuver through the many difficulties and tragedies fate will throw at them. The six children from the blended families will form, in the summers they spend together, a little tribe of their own and as a mother the things they got up to, with little adult su...

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Commonwealth

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