Ann Patchett (Encore)

Wild Card with Rachel Martin

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 990 Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ann Patchett's 2001 novel Bel Canto was a huge hit. She's continued to have success with her later work, including The Dutch House, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. But she recently returned to Bel Canto with a new edition annotated by Patchett herself. She and Rachel talk about why she wanted to critique her own work and they also discuss their shifting ideas of God and feeling comfortable being alone.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Fall in love with new music every Friday at All Songs Considered. That's NPR's
0:04.9	Music Recommendation podcast. Fridays are where we spend our whole show sharing all the greatest
0:10.3	new releases of the week. Make the hunt for new music a part of your life again. Tap into New
0:15.7	Music Friday from All Songs Considered, available wherever you get your podcasts.
0:20.9	Hey, it's Rachel. Wishing each and every one of you a very happy holiday season.
0:26.3	I wanted to reshare one of my very favorite conversations.
0:29.3	It's with the writer Ann Patchett.
0:31.1	Hope you enjoy.
0:33.3	How have your feelings about God changed over time?
0:37.2	I still believe in God changed over time?
0:39.8	I still believe in God.
0:40.8	Do you?
0:42.9	And here's the thing.
0:50.1	If I tried to tell you what that meant, I would be wrong.
0:56.5	The only thing that I know for sure is that whatever I know is wrong.
1:02.0	I'm Rachel Martin, and this is Wildcard, the game where cards control the conversation.
1:09.4	Each week, my guest answers questions about their life, questions pulled from a deck of cards.
1:12.9	They're allowed to skip one question and flip one back on me.
1:15.4	My guest this week is author Anne Patchett.
1:24.5	What matters is that we do our best with the life that we have, that we show up, that we love each other,
1:30.3	and that we try to be as aware as is humanly possible of the life and the gift that we're given.
1:32.2	Anne is a hugely popular writer.
	...

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