The Patron Saint of Liars (novel)
1992 novel by Ann Patchett
The Patron Saint of Liars is a 1992 novel, written by Ann Patchett. This is the first novel published by Patchett, and it was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Patchett completed the manuscript for The Patron Saint of Liars during a fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The novel focuses on a young woman named Rose who abandons her life in California as a married woman. She leaves for Kentucky and takes residence at a home for unwed mothers that is owned by the Catholic Church. As she watches girls give birth and disappear from the home, she must think of her own plans and what the future has in store for her.
Plot
The book is divided into four sections: Habit, Rose, Son, and Sissy
Habit
In 1906, George Clatterbuck witnesses a miracle as his daughter, June Clatterbuck, is healed by water from a spring in the back pasture of their property. The healing qualities of the spring attract visitors from afar including the Nelsons, wealthy horse breeders from Lexington. Upon discovering that there wasn’t a hotel in Habit, Lewis Nelson commissioned a hotel to be built to create space for all the visitors seeking out aid from the spring. The hotel was opened in 1920 as Hotel Louisa in honor of Lewis’ wife, Louisa Nelson.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Patron Saint of Liars (novel)” is 1992 novel by Ann Patchett. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Patron, Saint and Liars, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1992 novel by Ann Patchett” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17156134. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1992, 1906 and 1920.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Patron Saint of Liars (novel)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Patron Saint of Liars (novel) primary sources, The Patron Saint of Liars (novel) archive and Patron research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “The Patron Saint of Liars (novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.