Patricia O'Donnell's stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Agni Review, The North American Review, Prairie Schooner, and other places. She lives in Wilton, Maine, and directs the BFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Maine at Farmington.

When Anna Donoghue agrees to spring her aged father from his nursing home and drive him halfway across the country to the Iowa town she grew up in and has no wish to see again, she believes that he is the only traveler in their car with something to find there. But the old man, helpless with Parkinson's, is impelled by unspoken business that will rock her ordered world. And so will the revelations coming from Anna's only child, heretofore—perfect 19—year—old Chloe?revelations gleaned from fragmented phone calls with Anna's husband David, who is searching for Chloe in Boston's backstreets. When Anna and her father reach Iowa, their road trip takes several directions at once, all leading straight to the heart of self and family.
This story of three generations calls forth the strands that connect us one to another. Necessary Places asks what takes us away from those we love, what return is possible, and how to find the forgiveness that can carry us home.

"No woman is ever ready to care for a sick parent or to watch her daughter grow up and live on her own. But in Necessary Places, Anna Donoghue has to confront both inevitable realities at once… Anna is a resilient model for all women battling personal or familial struggles of any kind…" —Lydia Belanger, ForeWord
"Patricia O'Donnell's novel simply won me over - with its plain—spoken subtlety and canny elegance, and its unerring instinct for what's important to write novels about: matters of the heart, to which O'Donnell gives full, memorable voice." —Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize—winning author, Canada