Ann Patchett stopped by Late Night With Seth Meyers to discuss her latest novel.
The author’s Whistler, published Tuesday by Harper, follows Daphne Fuller, a woman who reunites with her former stepfather after they run into each other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised the novel as “an evocative and moving tribute to the death-defying, heart-opening, infinitely redemptive power of storytelling.”
Meyers noted that the cover art of Whistler was by Noah Saterstrom, the same artist who painted the cover of Patchett’s The Dutch House.
Patchett recalled telling Saterstrom that she wanted the cover of her new book to be a horse looking directly at the viewer. “He said, ‘That’s really a problem, because their eyes are on the side of their head,” Patchett said. “I just said, ‘Make it work.’”
Meyers showed Saterstrom’s initial mockup for the cover, which featured a horse in profile, looking toward the viewer. “I didn’t want to see the backside of the horse.…I said, ‘Line the horse up so I’m not looking at its ass.”
Meyers said, “This is a really interesting thing, as well, for anybody who knows how much time you put into this, how much time Noah put into this: The horse is not a big part of this book.”
“I’ll tell you, if you don’t like horses, and you don’t want to read a book about a horse, this is the book for you,” she said. “The horse is like five pages in the whole book.…The whole book takes place in New York City. It’s a very urban book, but there is a very iconic moment with a horse.”
“I think you’re very clever, because I think people who are into horses are going to buy this book,” Meyers said. “They’re going to be disappointed, but guess what? That money’s gone.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
