Truth and Beauty: A Friendship
From the bestselling author of The Dutch House, Commonwealth and Bel Canto, Winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Pen/Faulkner Award.
When Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college they began a friendship that would define their lives. Lucy Grealy lost part of her jaw to childhood cancer, and a large part of her life to chemotherapy and endless reconstructive surgeries. Stoic but vulnerable, damaged by bullying but fascinated by fame, Lucy had an incandescent personality that illuminated those around her.
In this tender, brutal book, Ann Patchett describes Lucy’s life and her own platonic love for her. Truth & Beauty is the story of the part of their lives that they shared – the camaraderie and comedy, the tribulations and tragedy of true friendship. A portrait of unwavering commitment through success, failure, despair and drugs, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined.
'A luminously detailed book…Truth & Beauty, Patchett's account of her relationship with Grealy, is not a story of commonplace camaraderie. Theirs is a love story, a first-love story, an account of devotion so intense that it compares to conventional friendship as closely as double cream does to Dream Topping' Observer -
”'An inspired duet…riveting” - Joyce Carol Oates
”'An extraordinary, painful, but ultimately celebratory memoir” - Red
”'A loving, clear-sighted portrayal” - Elle
”'Equal parts catharsis and work of art, Ann Patchett’s beautifully executed book is sincerely inscribed with Lucy’s inordinate value as a friend” - TLS
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