New Delhi, June 25 -- Ann Patchett's new novel, Whistler, tells the story of the reunion between Daphne, the narrator, and her stepfather, Eddie Triplett, 44 years after they had last met. They run into each other, by sheer accident, at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York one afternoon, where Daphne is with her husband Jonathan, a retired hospital administrator. The 76-year-old Eddie is unrecognizable to her, though he manages to identify the glimmer of the 9-year-old girl he had dearly loved in the woman of 53 standing in front of him.

Slowly, a deep-rooted mutual affection is revived within Eddie and Daphne, who introduces him to the extended family-her sister Leda and her husband Steve and their children and, of course, ...