Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

State of Wonder: A Novel

Rate this book

Kindle Edition

Published June 7, 2011

153 people are currently reading
84 people want to read

About the author

Ann Patchett

81 books28.3k followers
Patchett was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother is the novelist Jeanne Ray.

She moved to Nashville, Tennessee when she was six, where she continues to live. Patchett said she loves her home in Nashville with her doctor husband and dog. If asked if she could go any place, that place would always be home. "Home is ...the stable window that opens out into the imagination."

Patchett attended high school at St. Bernard Academy, a private, non-parochial Catholic school for girls run by the Sisters of Mercy. Following graduation, she attended Sarah Lawrence College and took fiction writing classes with Allan Gurganus, Russell Banks, and Grace Paley. She later attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she met longtime friend Elizabeth McCracken. It was also there that she wrote her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars.

In 2010, when she found that her hometown of Nashville no longer had a good book store, she co-founded Parnassus Books with Karen Hayes; the store opened in November 2011. In 2012, Patchett was on the Time 100 list of most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
131 (60%)
4 stars
62 (28%)
3 stars
18 (8%)
2 stars
3 (1%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
14 reviews
January 3, 2026
I realized I never added this book to my goodreads shelf after finishing. Ann patchett is perhaps my favorite author, or at least her books are favorites of mine. This one is number 1. I’ve read it twice. If u love ann patchett you will love state of wonder.
104 reviews
January 14, 2026
Very different

I love this author. This book was so good even though it was very different than anything I’ve ever read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.