Tell Me a Story

June 24, 2019
King Conroy (The Same Sweet Girls’ Guide to Life) honors her late husband, Prince of Tides author Pat Conroy, who died in 2016, with this heartfelt memoir about their 18-year marriage. The couple met in 1995 at a literary event in Alabama when Conroy was an established author and King Conroy hadn’t yet published her first novel. Both were going through divorces, and King Conroy charmingly describes how she and Conroy kept in touch via phone calls before finally going on a date in 1997. A romance blossomed, and in 1998—when they were both past 50—they married: “We just enjoyed being together,” the author writes. “We talked for hours and we laughed a lot.” During their time together, they published five books each. King Conroy credits Conroy with encouraging her to write The Sunday Wife and reveals that he gave her the ultimate gift after they married: her first writing room. She celebrates his “exuberant” presence and recalls his enthusiasm for helping developing writers. The final chapters, about Conroy’s cancer diagnosis and his death at home, are tinged with sadness and hope. This engrossing tearjerker will appeal to fans of both King Conroy and her husband, and those inspired by literary romances.

August 15, 2019
A chronicle of love, humor, and creativity. In 1995, at a gathering of the Southern Voices Literary Conference, Conroy (The Same Sweet Girls' Guide to Life: Advice From a Failed Southern Belle, 2014, etc.) first met an author she deeply admired: Pat Conroy (1945-2016), whose 1986 novel, The Prince of Tides, had been a bestseller and was made into an Oscar-nominated movie. An "imposing and vibrant presence," he exuded "an undeniable aura of magnetism and charm." With her first novel due to come out, she was floored when he offered to provide a blurb and amazed a short time later when he called her--and kept calling her for the next two years. When he finally suggested that they meet in person, both felt as if they were old friends, and their relationship evolved into a love affair and, in 1998, marriage. The author brings her talents as a storyteller to a warm, candid memoir of their years together, ending with Pat's death from cancer. When they first met, the author, recently divorced, was emerging from severe depression. Living alone in a studio apartment, she barely supported herself and her sons with various teaching jobs, trying to eke out time to write. Pat was divorced, too, although usually entangled in affairs; and he, too, had been left "depleted, despondent, and hollow-eyed with despair" after his last marriage ended. "I need someone to rescue me for a change," Pat told her. She was buoyed by his humor and emotional generosity, though as she came to know him, she realized that he was "a complicated man who [hid] his deepest feelings behind a devil-may-care demeanor." They nurtured each other's creativity, publishing five books during their time together, and Pat pushed her to go on book tours to publicize her work. The author recounts in lively detail the stresses and joys of daily life: family gatherings, Pat's recurring health problems, and their mutual love of the South Carolina marshland. An ebullient portrait of a marriage.

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September 1, 2019
Award-winning novelist Conroy's (Moonrise, 2013) intimate memoir of her relationship with her late husband, fellow novelist Pat Conroy, is not to be missed. When the author met Pat in the mid-nineties, a very slow-dance courtship began between the former preacher's wife and the Prince of Tides author. Conroy weaves a lovely tapestry from tales of their friendship and marriage, which lasted until Pat's death from cancer in 2016. Readers will be spellbound by the expertly unfolded development of the relationship between the quiet, shy, and introverted Conroy and the gentle Pat. With the curious and fascinating backdrop of South Carolina's lowcountry, it all adds up to a funny, beautiful, and unforgettable shared-life story. Conroy is a remarkably gifted writer and her work will remind readers of listening to a good ballad and witnessing the vivid imagery of the U.S. south, with its cadence and drawls. Whether it's unfolding in a hospital room or on a beach, her story will pull readers in. Much more than a memoir, this is a mesmerizing and captivating love story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)