Ann Patchett and Karen Hayes: Launching Parnassus BooksChapter16.org, 13 June 2011
Last Wednesday, novelist Ann Patchett appeared on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show to discuss her new novel, State of Wonder. It was in many ways a routine discussion about a much-anticipated book by a bestselling author, but nearly an hour into the conversation, Patchett casually dropped a bombshell: she and former Random House sales rep Karen Hayes were about to open a new bookstore in Nashville, a town without one for the last six months. “I don’t know if I’m opening an ice shop in the age of Frigidaire,” Patchett told Rehm, “but I can’t live in a city that doesn’t have a bookstore.”