Genre Fiction
![Ann Patchett - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B000AQ6QAW.jpg)
Tom Lake: A Novel
In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America's finest writers.
"Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature." -The Guardian
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.
Editorial Reviews
"Patchett's intricate and subtle thematic web…enfolds the nature of storytelling, the evolving dynamics of a family, and the complex interaction between destiny and choice….These braided strands culminate in a denouement at once deeply sad and tenderly life-affirming. Poignant and reflective, cementing Patchett's stature as one of our finest novelists." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"As this spellbinding and incisive novel unspools, Patchett brings every turn of mind and every setting to glorious, vibrant life, gracefully contrasting the dazzle of the ephemeral with the gravitas of the timeless, perceiving in cherries sweet and tart reflections of love and loss." - Booklist (starred review)
"Patchett is at the top of her game." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A swoony, luminous reminder about the endurance of love and happiness in a broken world." - Oprah Daily
"A tender, absorbing tale about becoming who we are." - People
"A compelling narrative about the secret lives of parents-and how to find happiness in the midst of a long life." - Time
"One of our greatest living chroniclers of love and marriage-and its resounding impacts over generations-is back this summer … Expect wonder; Patchett always delivers." - Elle
"Tom Lake is about romantic love, marital love and maternal love, but also the love of animals, the love of stories, love of the land and trees and the tiny, red, cordiform object that is a cherry....This generous writer hits the mark again with her ninth novel." - Washington Post
"Tom Lake…[takes] its time to marvel over the quiet drama of ordinary living: a strong marriage, a loving family, a place to gather at the end of the day." - Houston Chronicle
"Tom Lakeis a warm, funny book about kind people who do the best they can." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"[Patchett] writes with deep attention to our country's changing culture while never taking her eye off...
"As this spellbinding and incisive novel unspools, Patchett brings every turn of mind and every setting to glorious, vibrant life, gracefully contrasting the dazzle of the ephemeral with the gravitas of the timeless, perceiving in cherries sweet and tart reflections of love and loss." - Booklist (starred review)
"Patchett is at the top of her game." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A swoony, luminous reminder about the endurance of love and happiness in a broken world." - Oprah Daily
"A tender, absorbing tale about becoming who we are." - People
"A compelling narrative about the secret lives of parents-and how to find happiness in the midst of a long life." - Time
"One of our greatest living chroniclers of love and marriage-and its resounding impacts over generations-is back this summer … Expect wonder; Patchett always delivers." - Elle
"Tom Lake is about romantic love, marital love and maternal love, but also the love of animals, the love of stories, love of the land and trees and the tiny, red, cordiform object that is a cherry....This generous writer hits the mark again with her ninth novel." - Washington Post
"Tom Lake…[takes] its time to marvel over the quiet drama of ordinary living: a strong marriage, a loving family, a place to gather at the end of the day." - Houston Chronicle
"Tom Lakeis a warm, funny book about kind people who do the best they can." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"[Patchett] writes with deep attention to our country's changing culture while never taking her eye off...
Readers Top Reviews
V. Rock
“Tom Lake,” by Ann Patchett, Harper, 320 pages, Aug. 1, 2023. Lara Kenison and her friend are setting up the small New Hampshire town’s gym for auditions for Our Town. They are not auditioning because the town’s residents may want to try out for a part. But then Lara is so disappointed in the women auditioning for Emily that she does. And gets the part. This story is told in two timelines. That is the past. In the present, Lara is telling that story to her three daughters: Maisie, Emily and Nell, who are all in their 20s. It is now the spring of 2020. Her daughters have returned to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. Emily is out of college and plans to take over the orchard. She is engaged to a neighbor, Benny Holzapfels. Maisie is studying to be a veterinarian and Nell wants to act. Because of the pandemic, the farm workers don’t come and the Nelson family has to harvest the crop themselves. While picking cherries, the girls ask their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a now famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company at Tom Lake, Michigan. As a teenager, Emily was obsessed with Duke, convinced he was her actual father. Lara’s husband, Joe, was the one who told the girls that they knew Peter Duke and his brother, Sebastian. The girls think they knew the whole story, but they don’t. Lara was once on the fast track to fame. This is a moving portrait of a woman looking back at a formative period in her life. It is also about how people take different paths in life. The story is engrossing and the characters are wonderful. This is one of Ann Patchett’s best novels.
AnnarellaV. Rock
I fell in love witn Ann Patchettt's style of writing when I read These Precious Days, a collection of non fiction essay. There's something in her prose that is hypnotic, that keeps hooked and deep in her world regardless of the topic and if it's fiction or non fiction. I fell in love with Tom Lake since the beginning. I didn't know Out Town and had to check about it. I loved this story, loved the characters and the storytelling. I can find no fault and it's a brilliant story that I loved. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine
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