Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her first novel, If Morning Ever Comes, was published in 1964 whilst her 11th novel, Breathing Lessons, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. In 1994, Tyler was nominated 'the greatest living novelist writing in English' by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Her fiction has strength of vision, originality, freshness, unconquerable humor. This new novel delighted me - perhaps her best so far. New York Times A novelist who knows what a proper story is ... [Tyler is] not only a good and artful writer, but a wise one as well Newsweek Excellently done; the minutiae of domestic landscapes, the lunatic irrationality of family quarrels, the torments of sibling rivalry Sunday Telegraph In her ninth novel she has arrived at a new level of power New Yorker The charm of an Anne Tyler novel lies in the clarity of her prose and the wisdom of her observations, in her fine ear for the 'clamor' of family. Washington Post