11 Captivating Novels for Ann Patchett Fans

Fans of Patchett’s layered and evocative narratives will adore Penitence by Kristin Koval. The debut novel centers on Angie and David, whose lives are upended by a murder in their home. Shaken, they call on Martine Dumont, a lawyer and the mother of Angie’s first love, Julian. As the mystery surrounding the murder deepens, Angie must confront not only her current situation but the unresolved complexities of their shared past. Koval’s captivating work of literary suspense spans decades and crisscrosses the country from snowy Colorado to the streets of New York City. Like Patchett, she vividly explores themes of forgiveness, family, grief, and healing. 

If your favorite feature of Patchett’s stories is how fully she captures family dynamics, then Tracey Lange is your new favorite writer. Lange’s most recent work, What Happened to the McCrays, is a moving tale of togetherness that doubles as a love letter to the power of community (and youth hockey!). After his father has a stroke, Kyle McCray returns to the town he abandoned so he can nurse his dad back to health. Coming home is easier said than done: His wife, friends, and colleagues are still reeling from his sudden departure two years ago. As Kyle seeks redemption, he’s offered the chance to coach the local middle school hockey team — which might be just the opportunity he needs to finally make amends.

Amy Jo Burns is another author who excels at crafting exceptional family dramas. Her latest novel, Mercury, is a beautifully written account of the ways in which the buried traumas of the past can wreak havoc on the present. Marley West is a loner when she arrives in the blue-collar town of Mercury, Pennsylvania, but almost immediately she finds herself caught up in the lives of the Joseph brothers. It isn’t long before she becomes a wife to one and a maternal figure to all of them. As Marley’s relationship with the Josephs evolves, she finds herself fighting for the survival of her found family and their roofing business after long-buried family secrets finally come to light. Patchett fans will be hooked by this compelling saga steeped in small-town mystery.

Laura Spence-Ash’s sweeping literary love story is the perfect next read for fans of Patchett’s exquisitely rendered works of historical fiction. Beginning in dark days of WWII, Beyond That, the Sea tells the story of Bea, a young Londoner who’s sent to America by her parents to escape the dangers of war. Initially unmoored by the move, Bea soon settles into her new home in Boston with her wealthy adoptive family. Just as she begins to feel at ease, however, the war in Europe ends, and Bea is summoned back to a life she’s all but forgotten. Anyone who has ever felt their heart pulled between two worlds will cherish this affecting transatlantic bildungsroman.

James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store has earned rave reviews from critics and readers, with The New York Times praising it as “a murder mystery locked inside the Great American Novel.” Patchett fans will appreciate its richly drawn characters and evocative historical fiction backdrop. The novel takes place in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, in the 1920s and ’30s and centers on the relationship between the city’s Black and Jewish communities. It opens in 1972 with the discovery of a human skeleton and a mezuzah at a local reservoir before flashing back to the ’30s to tell the story of a sprawling set of characters that readers will come to love. 

Patchett’s writing has often been described as “Dickensian” because of its large cast of characters and intersecting plot lines that unfold across decades. If these elements speak to you, then you’ll surely enjoy Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize–winning retelling of David Copperfield. The novel transposes Dickens’s themes of poverty and injustice from 1800s London to contemporary Appalachia and the ongoing ravages of the opioid epidemic. Set within a world of hardship and abandonment, the story follows the child of a single mother who must navigate foster care, addiction, love, and loss.

Award-winning novelist Daniel Mason brilliantly combines magic with the natural world in this genre-blurring story about cycles of history, our relationship to our environment, and the nature of destiny. North Woods invites you into an unassuming home in the woods of Massachusetts, where the first inhabitants are two young lovers escaping their Puritan colony. Following them through the centuries are humans and animals alike, from a crime reporter to a painter to a panther and a beetle. This one-of-a-kind novel is sure to please Patchett fans looking for a bighearted ride into the mysteries of life.

Like Patchett’s best work, Years of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks offers a unique perspective on the present by illuminating the events of yesteryear. Brooks’s 17th-century English plague story is told from the perspective of a maid named Anna, who must confront the dark wave of fear that takes hold of her village as disease ravages the community. Brooks deftly explores togetherness and the ways we confront terror in our darkest hours in this powerful work. 

Longlisted for the Booker Prize, My Name is Lucy Barton was named a best book of the year in 2016 by too many publications to list. Elizabeth Strout shares Ann Patchett’s penchant for exploring family dynamics, a talent on full display in this beloved novel. In fact, The Washington Post called the book about mother–daughter relationships “spectacular.” The novel centers on Lucy, who’s recovering from a recent operation, and her mother, who comes to see her for the first time in many years. A simple beginning quickly expands into a deep exploration of the bond that connects an adult daughter with her mother.  

Colson Whitehead and Ann Patchett excel at illuminating complicated truths about social dynamics. Sag Harbor is at once a funny coming-of-age story and a sharply observed analysis of race and class set within the milieu of an elite prep school in 1980s Manhattan. For Benji Cooper, one of the only Black students at his exclusive high school, fall, winter, and spring are seasons spent navigating the distinct challenges of school life. In summer, however, he escapes to Sag Harbor, an oasis in the Hamptons where Black professionals have built a community where they can be themselves. 

We conclude our list of authors like Ann Patchett with Celeste Ng, the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You. Set in 1970s Ohio, Ng’s story of a Chinese American family navigating profound loss offers a striking mix of heartbreak and mystery, and it’s the perfect next read for Patchett fans. At the start of the novel, Marilyn and James Lee are reeling from the sudden death of their daughter Lydia. As we follow them in their grief, the book explores the many ways that families struggle and succeed to truly understand one another.