At the same time, it does feel like
people are craving a return to
certain analog things, like real
bookstores and vinyl records.
PATCHETT It’s me and Jack White.
He’s pressing that vinyl. [Laughs]
Elizabeth, My Name Is Lucy Barton
has just been adapted for Broad-
way as a one-woman show, with
Laura Linney, right?
STROUT Jan. 6 it opens [in pre-
views], yes. I always saw her as
Lucy, and I think I told some jour-
nalist that, and after a little while
she and I had lunch together. But I
never actually thought it would
happen—the same with Olive Kit-
teridge and Frances McDormand.
And Ann, you have Tom Hanks doing
The Dutch House audio book?
PATCHETT I do. I did a reading the
other night, and I just got up there
and gave my Tom Hanks imitation.
It was super! I just cribbed the
whole thing. [Laughs]
What about your own reading
lately, what have you loved?
STROUT Right now I’m reading a
biography of [Leo] Tolstoy, and
then I have another one on Tol-
stoy waiting, because I always like
to read more than one biography
of the same person.
PATCHETT I just finished the new
Margaret Atwood, which I loved.
What a ripping read! I tend to only
read books that haven’t been
published yet, because it is the
way of the bookstore world
[Patchett co-owns Parnassus, in
Nashville]. So in my suitcase I
have the galley of a Louise Erdrich
book that’s coming. I love Louise,
quickly after your last book. Do
you usually need more time off?
STROUT I am always writing.
Always writing. So often what
happens is, as I’m finishing a
book, another book has already
begun in me.
PATCHETT I’m thinking, but I am
totally not writing.
When fans come to you, what are
they usually looking for?
STROUT You know, there are
always a few readers, they’re
often a little bit shy, but I under-
stand that they’ve been touched
in a way that I was hoping, and I
think they just want me to know
it. And I do know it. We always
know the truth of things among
people, I think, and that’s a won-
derful thing to see.
PATCHETT I get a lot of people
who cry, and a lot of people who
want to touch me. It’s very physi-
cal, and it’s weird because I’m
not the warmest person in the
world, and I’m not the snuggliest.
But people will be like, “Will you
stand up so I can just hold you for
a minute?”
STROUT That’s lovely.
fall BOOKS special
PHOTOGRAPH BY VICTORIA WILL EW ● COM NOVEMBER 2019 97
