For her October book club selection, Jenna Bush Hager chose a book by one of her “all-time favorite” authors: “Partita” by Barbara Kingsolver.
“He’s on the writers’ Mount Rushmore for me,” Jenna says.
“Partita” is the follow-up to Kingsolver’s smash hit “Demon Copperhead,” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023.
It’s about a woman named Livia, who meets her first love when he unexpectedly contacts her decades after they met while studying piano at university.
“When a great love from your past returns to your future, it makes you ask: ‘How did my life turn out? Was it shaped around the things I thought about?’ Jenna asks.
He says he likes the book because it is very sincere. “It focuses on the things that make life beautiful,” he says.
The title “Partita” refers to a type of musical composition that literally consists of parts. The theme is reflected in how the book brings together many parts of Livia’s life, as well as the events that occur within it. shred He transferred his life to these parts.
“We know from the first page that Livia has lost her brother, which sets her on a journey to put together her broken pieces,” he says.
Jenna points to the book’s epilogue, a quote from Toni Morrison: “Sometimes you don’t survive completely. You only survive partially. But the glory in life is in that effort.”
Kingsolver has been publishing books since 1988. His 1999 book “The Poisonwood Bible” was a Pulitzer finalist, and he won the prize in 2023 for his book “Demon Copperhead.” Both novels were selected for Oprah’s Book Club.