National Book Award finalist Patricia Henley captivates us with this engrossing novel of a woman whose long-held secret will transform her life and her marriage. From all appearances, Ruth Anne Bond is enviably lucky. Her husband, Johnny, still treats her like a young lover. Her grown daughter is a staunch friend. Her steady work and devotion to the church have quietly made her a pillar of the community. Then one long Indiana summer brings some unexpected communiqués—including one she has both craved and feared for thirty years. As long-hidden truths threaten to emerge, for the first time in her marriage Ruth Anne is faced with memories she and Johnny never discuss: of a year spent in Saigon in 1968—and a past she has yet to acknowledge. Probing questions of family and faith, Patricia Henley offers us a tender, far-sighted novel about seeking answers and achieving grace. From the Trade Paperback edition.

In the River Sweet: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Henley, Patricia

United States

Pantheon

National Book Award finalist Patricia Henley captivates us with this engrossing novel of a woman whose long-held secret will transform her life and her marriage. From all appearances, Ruth Anne Bond is enviably lucky. Her husband, Johnny, still treats her like a young lover. Her grown daughter is a staunch friend. Her steady work and devotion to the church have quietly made her a pillar of the community. Then one long Indiana summer brings some unexpected communiqués—including one she has both craved and feared for thirty years. As long-hidden truths threaten to emerge, for the first time in her marriage Ruth Anne is faced with memories she and Johnny never discuss: of a year spent in Saigon in 1968—and a past she has yet to acknowledge. Probing questions of family and faith, Patricia Henley offers us a tender, far-sighted novel about seeking answers and achieving grace.

In the River Sweet

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

A collection of poems by Patricia Henley.

Back Roads (Carnegie Mellon Poetry)

Poetry

Carnegie-Mellon University Press

Eight stories deal with a strained marriage, a difficult childbirth, a rebellious teenager, divorcing parents, group encounters, a new home, and a woman whose brother is released from a mental hospital

Friday Night at Silver Star (Graywolf Short Fiction Series)

Graywolf Pr

Other Heartbreaks: Stories

"Throughout her powerful story collection, Other Heartbreaks, Patricia Henley lays bare the souls of women coping with the ache of losing love."—O, The Oprah Magazine
This collection of elegant, moving stories explores the bonds and betrayals among women. Patricia Henley's characters make their way through grief and discovery, revealing the power of their hearts and of the landscapes where they reside.
Patricia Henley's first novel Hummingbird House was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her second novel In the River Sweet was named a Best Book of the Year by the Chicago Tribune and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Other Heartbreaks: stories

Engine Books

Hardcover special edition including an interview with the author. In this collection of elegant, moving stories, Patricia Henley explores the many bonds and betrayals among women: mothers, daughters, lovers, friends. Her characters, at once familiar and surprising, make their way through grief and discovery, revealing the power of their own hearts and of the landscapes where they reside. In "Rocky Gap," June Peck and her family gather to honor their lost sister; in "Red Lily" the secrets and lies Jenny Rogers keeps and tells will change her life; in the haunting and hopeful "Ephemera," Sophie March-Gonzales faces the worst kind of loss, and through that loss, finds a future to cherish. "Other Heartbreaks features the give and take between women when it comes to matters of love, family, and the yearning of the spirit. These stories resonate with the hard-earned wisdom of women moving through the nebulous expanse between what was and what will be. Henley's finely crafted prose, lush and precise, provides a glorious chorus of these women's voices, so rich with their frustrations, regrets, hopes, and joys. This is a book to read slowly and to savor, being, as we are, in the hands of a master." -Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever "In Other Heartbreaks Patricia Henley once again displays her great gifts as a storyteller. She can capture the telling moment in a phrase; conjure a character onto the page with a single piercing sentence. This collection, full of glittering insights and moral complexity, rewards the reader's attention in the best way." -Margot Livesey, author of Banishing Verona "All of us ardent Patricia Henley fans have cause for rejoicing. Her long-anticipated collection of new stories has arrived, and it is splendid. The characters in Other Heartbreaks are achingly familiar as they strive to connect, even as the obstacles they face in that striving reside within themselves. The sweet sadness of life shimmers in these tales. Patricia Henley is one of our culture's finest chroniclers of the human heart." -Robert Olen Butler, author of A Small Hotel "Other Heartbreaks is now my go-to gift for all the readers I know-and what a gift it is. These stories braid elegance, wisdom, and a certain raw quality to stunningly moving effect. Patricia Henley writes with the clear advantage of knowing more than seems possible about how human beings love, lose, and continue to live. A brilliant, important collection of stories." -Robin Black, author of If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This

The Secret of Cartwheels (Graywolf Short Fiction)

An impressive overview of a writer whose career is still climbing, Worship of the Common Heart allows us a rare opportunity to observe twenty years in the evolution of a writer of uncommon talent and heart. Emotionally complex, achingly real, these nineteen stories focus on the everyday, defining moments of life, celebrating the unsung and calling attention to the ignored. A young woman comes to an absolute and sad realization about her relationship at the very moment she gives birth. A woman enamored of younger men stumbles upon joy in the most unlikely place. A young nun takes a vacation with her earthy, unpredictable sister and learns a lesson in worship. Told with stunning confidence and honesty, the stories in Worship of the Common Heart revel in sensuality and the complexity of longings

Worship of the Common Heart: New and Selected Stories

Contemporary

Macmurray & Beck Communication

When Kate Banner, an American midwife in Nicaragua, loses another patient - a young woman who had recently given birth - she decides it is time to go home, because to care for the children of war you have to cut off pieces of your heart. Her travels home lead her to Guatemala where she again encounters the innocent victims of a country's war. Hummingbird House is a devastatingly powerful and emotionally trustworthy story of a human heart unbinding itself in the most unjust of worlds.

Hummingbird House

MacMurray & Beck

An American midwife travels to Central America to care for the women and children suffering through war.

Macadam Cage Pub

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Henley, Patricia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Henley, Patricia

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Henley, Patricia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

In the River Sweet: A Novel

In the River Sweet

Back Roads (Carnegie Mellon Poetry)

Friday Night at Silver Star (Graywolf Short Fiction Series)

Other Heartbreaks: stories

Other Heartbreaks: Stories

The Secret of Cartwheels (Graywolf Short Fiction)

Worship of the Common Heart: New and Selected Stories

Hummingbird House

Hummingbird House