Commonwealth
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At a christening in 1960s Los Angeles, an uninvited guest kisses the host's wife, and the marriages of two families come apart. Over fifty years, six step-siblings carry the weight of one shared awful childhood summer.
Commonwealth was written by Ann Patchett and published in 2016. It is a literary novel about two blended families across five decades, drawn loosely from her own family history.
Commonwealth is fictional but Ann Patchett has said the family structure was inspired by her own childhood after her parents' divorces. The events and characters are invented.
Commonwealth is 57 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Commonwealth takes most readers under an hour to finish.
Commonwealth is a standalone novel by Commonwealth War Graves Commission, not part of a series.
Commonwealth is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.