The Patron Saint of Liars

The Patron Saint of Liars is a 1992 novel, written by Ann Patchett. This is the first novel published by Patchett, and it was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Patchett completed the manuscript for The Patron Saint of Liars during a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The novel focuses on a young woman named Rose who abandons her life in California as a married woman. She leaves for Kentucky and takes residence at a home for unwed mothers that is owned by the Catholic Church. As she watches girls give birth and disappear from the home, she must think of her own plans and what the future has in store for her. Plot The book is divided into four sections: Habit, Rose, Son, and Sissy Habit In 1906, George Clatterbuck witnesses a miracle as his daughter, June Clatterbuck, is healed by water from a spring in the back pasture of their property. The healing qualities of the spring attract visitors from afar including the Nelsons, wealthy horse breeders from Lexington. Upon discovering that there wasn’t a hotel in Habit, Lewis Nelson commissioned a hotel to be built to create space for all the visitors seeking out aid from the spring. The hotel was opened in 1920 as Hotel Louisa in honor of Lewis’ wife, Louisa Nelson. When the spring dried up and the stock market crashed in 1929, the hotel was given to the Catholic church and renamed Saint Elizabeth’s. It was shortly used as a home for nuns to live out their days. Later, the nuns were moved to Ohio and the Hotel Louisa remained empty for some time before it became a Roman Catholic home for unwed mothers.