It upset me to realize that Patchett was using a piece of Peruvian history with no intention of telling a story of Peru or its political unrest or even including a proper description of the country. A very interesting story that happened in Peru, a country with a name and a history more interesting than opera, but this I'm afraid was not that story. President Fujimori himself is in prison for human rights violations, not from this incidence, but still an interesting side note since those loss of rights are linked to his low tolerance for terrorist activity. Since then, the commanders in the Peruvian army have been on trial for homicide but granted amnesty because they were praised as national heros. At a time when Peru suffered an undercurrent of terrorist activity, president Fujimori was praised for his handling of the crisis and his approval rating soared. In 1996, the home of the Japanese ambassador to Peru was taken hostage by guerillas during a party and held for 126 days until the home was raided by military force killing all the insurgents, many executed after they surrendered.

Let me preface this review by saying that I know this a disproportionately emotional review, but it's my review and my emotions and it is what it is. In 2012, Patchett was on the Time 100 list of most influential people in the world by TIME magazine. In 2010, when she found that her hometown of Nashville no longer had a good book store, she co-founded Parnassus Books with Karen Hayes the store opened in November 2011. It was also there that she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. She later attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she met longtime friend Elizabeth McCracken. Following graduation, she attended Sarah Lawrence College and took fiction writing classes with Allan Gurganus, Russell Banks, and Grace Paley. Bernard Academy, a private, non-parochial Catholic school for girls run by the Sisters of Mercy. the stable window that opens out into the imagination.' If asked if she could go any place, that place would always be home. Patchett said she loves her home in Nashville with her doctor husband and dog.

She moved to Nashville, Tennessee when she was six, where she continues to live. Patchett was born in Los Angeles, California.

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