Commonwealth

An unexpected kiss, and ten lives are destroyed. Or are they?

Patchett plays with the idea of how a tiny event can shape lives in this story which follows ten people over fifty years. An uninvited guest shows up at a baptism and impulsively kisses a married woman. The two divorce and marry, reshaping their own lives and the lives of their spouses and the lives of their children. But how much does the kiss really change? In the end, maybe a kiss is just a kiss....