Tom Lake is a novel by Ann Patchett. It was published by Harper on August 1, 2023. The book relates the story of three daughters who yearn to know about their mother’s youthful relationship with a famous actor. Upon its release, the book was met with mostly positive reviews from book critics, who praised it as the author’s prime material.
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.
Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett is a highly acclaimed American author known for her novels, essays, and non-fiction works. Ann Patchett’s writing is known for its rich characterization, evocative prose, and exploration of complex themes such as family, identity, and the human condition. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work and is widely regarded as one of the most talented contemporary American authors.
Sadagas Books 