Barbara Kingsolver: Partita [2026]

FROM THE GLOBAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR

'She means to save us by telling us stories. . . She comes closer than anyone else I know' ANN PATCHETT

'[Kingsolver] reminds us that a novel can be wildly entertaining and still have a social conscience' NEW YORK TIMES, '100 Best Books of the 21st Century' (on Demon Copperhead)

You've taken Demon to your hearts, prepare for another 'emotionally raw, riotously entertaining' read as you meet Livia.

Here's my question: How does a person step in front of a train and leave everything right there?

Livia Bohusz misses her big brother, Cyrus. But since the day he took his own life, a day that changed everything, eleven-year-old Livia has also known she has no choice but to survive.

Her solace is music. A gifted pianist, Livia's only escape is the quiet rapture it brings as she practices. The promise of a new life her talent might offer is intoxicating, a life away from the stifling silence that has enveloped the farm since Cyrus' death.

When Livia starts college as a music major and scholarship prodigy, it feels as if a new life might begin. Immersing herself in her passions in a world where she excels, even as she struggles to fit in with more urbane classmates, she glimpses the possibilities of a life beyond the farm and her parents.

Then one springtime, the smell of reviving grass and crocuses and the sounds of songbirds fill the air, and Livia catches a glimpse of shirt sleeves rolled to the elbow, muscles you wouldn't miss in the rear view:

'Who is that man?'

It is a question Livia may come to wish she had never asked.

Partita is Livia's story: It is a tale of thwarted ambitions, accumulated pain, of newfound hope, unexpected love, and endless resilience. It is as compelling and profound as the pieces Livia has mastered, and as heart-rending and engrossing as the music that makes, breaks and mends her.

Readers love Barbara Kingsolver:
'Barbara Kingsolver's way with words is beyond description!'
'That's the magic of Barbara Kingsolver I guess - to make you laugh in one line and then absolutely wreck you in the next. What a genius'
'I love Kingsolver because I never know where she will go next but it will always be somewhere that I've never been before'
'Barbara Kingsolver has an understanding of the human condition and the abuses inflicted by an unjust society upon those who do not deserve that'
'A trademark ability to tell a story with empathy'
'One of those writers who somehow can produce writing that sounds as natural as talking and yet that somehow comes out as poetry'
'Kingsolver is a magician with words'