Shirley Hazzard takes her time between novels. At 72, she had only written six and had taken two decades to complete the follow-up to her acclaimed and bestselling The Transit of Venus. She counts on a legion of patient fans -- as well as a meticulous way with language. Plus, she s funny. Hazzard's fiction has always been marked by such precise lyricism and emotional microscopy that it's been easy to overlook her gifts for aphorism and laugh-out-loud skewering, The Atlantic Monthly noted in 2003.