Tom Lake: A Novel

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

 

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

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320 pages

Average rating: 7.09

2,255 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

TMMjazz
Mar 31, 2025
3/10 stars
First time reading Ann Patchett book. I had to read the first 2 chapters twice to make sure I understood and didn’t miss something as it was a slow read and a bit confusing. I did finish the book and later into reading it found a story to tell. I did not like the going back and forth time wise. My reasons for the rating of 3.
roj94
Mar 16, 2025
10/10 stars
Such a lovely book, amazing narration by Meryl Streep!
Talleygirl
Feb 24, 2025
8/10 stars
Definitely not what I was expecting. It was sad and yet complete.
Kristinray
Feb 21, 2025
7/10 stars
7.5 rating from our group ◡̈
ElaineM
Feb 16, 2025
9/10 stars
Loved it and read it twice, about two years apart. The 2nd time I caught some meanings that I missed the first time. It helps to be familiar with the play, Our Town.

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