Excerpt from Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

I never thought that there was anything brave about moving to another state to live with someone I barely knew and yet suspected didn't like me, any more than it would have seemed hard to be broke and in pursuit of such an unlikely profession. Because my life had no shape, I was willing to accept whatever happened. If Tina had turned to me in that scorching U-Haul and said, Let's keep the truck, let's drive though Canada and take the Alcan Highway to Alaska, I probably would have been thrilled. Tina was good company and I very much wanted her to stay with me, but she was planning on her own adventure, riding her bicycle across America as soon as she dropped me off. Besides, by the time we made it to Iowa City, we were tired of the truck. We were sticky from sweat and all the candy we had eaten on the way. As we turned onto Governor Street, Lucy pulled up in the passenger seat of a gorgeous antique convertible driven by a handsome man. She waved ecstatically. "I'll be right there!" she called, and then they zoomed away.

I thought that things must be going well for Lucy.

The front door of the house was open wide. The living room was completely empty and the linoleum floor was shining wet and smelled of Pine Sol. I walked into the room, leaving a trail of footprints behind me.

From Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett. HarperCollins Publishers. Used by permission.