Ann Patchett is an American author best known for her novel Bel Canto, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2002. Patchett has written several other novels, including State of Wonder and Commonwealth, as well as non-fiction works such as Truth & Beauty and This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. She is also the co-owner of Parnassus Books, an independent bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee.