PBS Books welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver for an exclusive live discussion about her brand-new novel Partita— a book she says she has been waiting her whole life to write.
This interactive virtual book club event will take place on November 5, 2026,at 8PM ET. Registration is available with a qualifying donation of $150 or more. Along with access to the virtual event, donors will receive a copy of the book, Partita, and the PBS Books mug.
Partita, on sale October 6th, is a deeply moving novel about art, music, class, memory, and the life-altering power of love.
Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and her promise as an extraordinary pianist. His request, now, to see her again stirs up ghosts she has kept at bay for a lifetime.
With razor-sharp acuity, Kingsolver’s new novel Partita reflects on class barriers, the risks of ambition, and the timeless, life-changing powers of art. Told in movements that mirror a Bach partita, the novel unfolds with the precision and emotional power of music itself: each section building on the last, each theme returning transformed.
Kingsolver reflects, “This novel started small. It would be about a young musician, I thought; a little love story. But it kept expanding as I wrote, opening and closing around itself like a set of nested boxes. Partita is a story of a brief, passionate, life-changing affair, contained inside a bigger love story, all wrapped up in what might be the greatest romance of all: our eternal human longing for art and beauty.”
During this live virtual event moderated by PBS Books hosts Lauren Smith and Fred Nahhat, we’ll explore the origins of Kingsolver’s new novel, reflect on her remarkable career as an author, and revisit highlights from some of her bestselling works. Audience members will also have the opportunity to interact in a lively book club chat and submit their own questions for Barbara Kingsolver.
