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The Roundtable

Annie Hartnett pens dark comedy "The Road to Tender Hearts"

By Joe Donahue
Published August 18, 2025 at 11:45 AM EDT

Annie Hartnett is the author of “Unlikely Animals: The Novel” which won the Julia Ward Howe Prize for fiction and was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is also the author of “Rabbit Cake,” a finalist for the New England Book Award.

Her latest novel is “The Road to Tender Hearts: A Novel” which is darkly comic and also warm hearted about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush.

[Encore airing.]

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Joe Donahue
Joe talks to people on the radio for a living. In addition to countless impressive human "gets" - he has talked to a lot of Muppets. Joe grew up in Philadelphia, has been on the area airwaves for more than 25 years and currently lives in Washington County, NY with his wife, Kelly, and their dog, Brady. And yes, he reads every single book.
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