Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for this ARC!

Ann Patchett is the master of the family story. She writes about complex feelings, about life, about the experience of being a flawed human, like no one else.

It’s the first spring/summer of COVID (the story doesn’t focus on COVID at all, it just justifies why the children are back at their childhood home and everyone is isolating) and Lara’s 3 adult children have come back to the cherry orchard in Michigan that she owns with her husband, their father, Joe. They’re spending time together, bonding, picking cherries, bearing witness to the insanity of the world outside the farm. Then the story telling begins…the story of Lara and the now famous movie star boyfriend she had all those years ago. The story of how she met Joe. The story of how she choose a different life for herself - missed opportunities perhaps, but also maybe she was saved from a life that wasn’t meant for her. She choose the simple life. The layers are peeled back slowly in this one.

Four stars because, in all honestly, I didn’t feel as connected to these characters as I did in The Dutch House. Some of the supporting characters were rather bland and not three dimensional. The dynamic between Lara and her daughter Emily and their whole backstory just didn’t jive with me. But it’s a great summer read, nonetheless. It's a book with a satisfying ending, which I always enjoy.

Ann Patchett’s story of Tom Lake is brilliant and beautiful. Riddled with symbolism and woven with countless synchronicities. Everything is connected beautifully and endlessly and no matter how many times you read it you’ll find new connections each time you hadn’t picked up before. I have never in my life related to a novel more than this one - so much so that I read the narration in my own voice.
Tom Lake is the telling of a story by the mother, Lara, of a family that is brought back to their home on a cherry orchard during the pandemic. With her daughters all home together she takes the opportunity to tell them of her life Before. It is the story of her life in seasons and chapters, some that closed and some that stayed open. It is the story of a woman who Was before she became a mother and Is now. It is the story of a boy who Was. Because every one of us has a Was, but not all of us leave that behind.

Books have a time and place. This one begs to be read all in one go, spending a beautiful summer day in a hammock in a beautiful green backyard, enjoying a gentle breeze while you are enveloped by this world. Although it's just as good on a rain late winter day huddled on a bus.

It's so encapsulating you could spend a great day reading through. Or you might not want it to end and dole it out in little pieces to make it last (I had a ARC from Net Galley so felt I needed to finish quickly so tore through it faster than I would have wanted to, sometimes I wanted to reach out and grab the characters and say let's just hang out by the lake a little longer). This book is the best of summer afternoons on paper, it's sunshine and a hug. It's not all happy, but even the sad parts serve a larger purpose so are ok. It just makes you think that life is what it is meant to be. Even though it is told looking back (one of the smoothest dual timeline treatments I've ever seen), so you know what happens to the main character from the beginning, there are so many twists and surprises as it goes. And the way it is written, the twists and surprises are earned and so deserving that you are satisfied with them, even applaud a couple of them. When one characters arrives, I found myself cheering for him with the daughters. It's been a long time since I have read a book that was so well written with great characters that also made me feel so happy.

The play Our Town is very important to the story and plot. I have never seen or read the play and I bet I am missing something in the book because of that. Well shoot, I'll have to see the play and then reread the book. It'll be nice going back to spend more time with the family in the cherry orchard.

This is a new personal favorite. Lara's three grown daughters rejoin her and her husband on their berry farm in Michigan during the pandemic. Lara entertains the daughters (they can't bear to turn on the news) as they work on the farm with stories from her youth, particularly of her career as an actress and her romance with a movie star. I absolutely loved the storytelling and Patchett's writing left me wanting more from this story and its characters. This is one I will reread, especially when the audiobook is available.

I can't wait to recommend this book! It takes place in beautiful northern Michigan during the height of the pandemic. Lara is happily married, and she and her husband have a cherry farm in Michigan. Their three adult daughters have returned home, and beg Lara to tell them the real story of Lara's romance with the mega-famous, Oscar-winning actor Peter Duke. She does, drawing it out through the course of this wonderful book, as we learn not only Lara's old love story, but the current stories of her interesting daughters, herself, and her husband. Full of heart, humor, and great storytelling -- hard to put down, for sure! I love author's voice in this novel -- it is very much like her voice in her recent memoir, These Precious Days. It's lighter and more heartfelt.

I have long been a fan of Ann Patchett’s writing (in fact, in my wildest daydreams, she is my neighbor and good friend), so I was thrilled to receive a pre-publication copy of Tom Lake, her newest novel, from NetGalley. Tom Lake is a gentle, engaging story that unfolds slowly in dual timelines that jump back and forth easily and seamlessly - without missing a beat. Ann Patchett has always been a master at family and relationship dynamics, and Tom Lake is no exception. The characters here are beautifully crafted, and their relationships with each other are natural and believable. In Tom Lake, Ann Patchett creates a wonderful sense of time and place. I was easily drawn into the scenes she creates, feeling like I could take a seat at the kitchen table, climb a ladder in the cherry orchard, or gather on the dock of the lake. As a Michigander, I can attest to the summer-in-northern-lower-Michigan feeling Patchett creates in Tom Lake (although there is one teensy little glitch with a “drive time” between locations that would be impossible; but that’s just a niggling little thing). It was a pleasure to read a book set practically in my backyard.

I enjoyed reading a book featuring a woman looking back on her personal “decision tree” of life with satisfaction and peace. Lara’s story - the details she shared with her daughters and the details she kept for herself - rang very true for me.

This is another winner from Ann Patchett – and it just makes me wish all the harder that we really were neighbors, and that I truly was her friend.

"Tom Lake" is a haunting book and coming of age story full of insight and restraint. The appreciate how detailed and nuanced each character is, and the framework of her present life with a husband and three daughters in which her story unfolds. I highlighted many lines. It is unusual to read a novel where the female lead is so grateful and content for the life she currently leads, and I loved that. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for this gift of an ARC. #TomLake #NetGalley

Ann Patchett has hit another one out of the ballpark.

Tom Lake is an actor that Lara had a romance with one summer. Lara's children come home to help pick the cherries as the pandemic has prevented workers from coming.

Over the course of time the daughters ask Lara to tell them the story. She does and as the story continues the entire family reevaluates their lives and go deep within their psyche to do so.

A must read

Tom Lake is flawless Ann Patchett at her best. I loved the beautiful story of family. So much to think about and unpack this story leaves the reader breathless.
At first it seems like this might be a pandemic tale but thankfully it is not. Instead its the story of a woman and her family and the realization that despite all that came before her and all of her experiences leading up to the present,. she is actually living the life she always dreamed about.
Patchett is a master story teller. I fell in love with every character and gulped the story down in one sitting.
Honored to have been provided a ARC in exchange for my review and grateful to Netgalley and the publisher.
Highly recommend this book.

Absolutely wonderful - one of my favorite Ann Patchett books to date. A beautifully-drawn story so rich in detail and setting that you'll wish you could immediately uproot your life and move to a cherry orchard in Michigan. This is a story I'll revisit again and again.

I love Patchett and this was no different. So vibrant and full of life. Great writing too. I can't wait to reread it and recommend it to others upon release.

TOM LAKE
Ann Patchett
Harper Collins

I have been a devoted fan of Ann Patchett’s novels since I was mesmerized by the Patron Saint of Liars. And when it came to Bel Canto, I was immersed body and soul. As time has passed her books seem to concentrate more fully on family. There is no one that can compel a reader to care about family relationships like she can and Tom Lake is another example of this.


In this novel, we are still in the throes of the pandemic. Lara and Joe own a cherry farm in Northern Michigan and their three grown daughters come back to help them pick the fruit since they are light on workers. As the story progresses, the daughters beg their mother to tell them the story of her love affair with the famous actor, Peter Duke, when she spent a summer as an actress in summer stock.

The story is thematically related to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, the great American play that centers around the idea we live without really appreciating what our life has to offer us and don’t realize it until it’s too late.

Lara mastered the role of Emily while still in high school. In fact, it was such a brilliant performance, it brought her opportunities in Hollywood. She is called to Tom Lake, a summer stock theater in Michigan to play Emily. It is there that she has romance with Peter Duke, who later becomes a famous movie star and makes friends with people who leave a deep impression on her long after the summer ends.

As the novel unfolds, Lara parses out what truths to tell her daughters as well as how to think about her past as she reflects on her life. As Lara remembers her past, it forces her daughters to examine their own lives and think about what the future may hold for them.

As I was reading this story, I couldn’t help but think about my own life when I was in my twenties. I thought about what I might or might not tell my daughters about how those experiences and the decisions I made shaped me. Isn't that what the best fiction does?

This is a compelling read. In the hands of someone without Patchett’s brilliant capacity to weave a narrative interwoven with insight, it might have been plodding. After all, most of the action takes place within a summer. But, not so here. She had me to the last line.

Highly recommend.

Many thanks to Harper Collins and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

What a book!


I loved loved loved this book. I'm a massive Ann Patchett fan and Tom Lake did not dissapoint. This book, which is just as much about a young woman's coming-of-age and her first great love as it is about a mother and her relationship with her three daughters and husband, was incredible. The hopeful, yet elegic tone that this story has, the undeniable truths about growing up and the way people and feelings can shift, and that sense of wanting to know who your parents were before you existed all ring unbearable true.

This is such a special novel. I love the way Patchett writes about coming-of-age, sense of identity, relationships, friendships and families. She captures the beauty in ordinary, real moments without overwriting them or making them too rife with meaning.

I would literally recommend this book to anyone.

Ann Patchett excels once again at drawing the reader into the heart of family and its intricate relationships. It explores the secret world of a mother's first love as she relates the story to her grown children. It was a little slow moving at times and very subtle. It was unsparing in the exposure of our at times, our reckless and naïve youth.

I first read Ann Patchett when her first book was published. It seemed fabulous then and has only grown more relevant and moving. Tom Lake continues a long string of wonderful novels, they are distinguished by being each very different but all with characters and plots that stay with the reader long after the book is finished. I think that I will dream of living on a cherry farm tonight. Thank you for another wonderful experience.

When Lara's three daughters come back to their family's orchard in Northern Michigan in the spring of 2020, they implore their mother to recount the story of her past romance with Peter Duke, a well-known actor with whom she acted and fell in love while working at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara reminisces, her daughters reevaluate their own lives and relationship with their mother, leading them to question their understanding of the world.

Tom Lake delves into the themes of young love, marriage, and the lives of parents before their children were born. It is a bittersweet exploration of what it means to find happiness in the midst of chaos. Ann Patchett's signature skill of weaving together a captivating narrative with perceptive insights into family dynamics is evident in this novel. It is a luminous and engrossing tale, crafted with both emotional subtlety and profound intelligence, that confirms her status as one of the most celebrated and respected literary figures of our time.




Regenerate response

It was great to get to spend some time with all the members of the family in this story, and I enjoyed both the current day Covid era family dynamics, as well as the mother's back story. Another great read from Ann Patchett!

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett is an engaging, bittersweet story within a story. Readers will want to reserve a few days to be embraced by the tale of the Nelson family who lives on a fruit farm in Grand Traverse County, Michigan. Lara, a mother and wife in her fifties, is on the farm with her three adult daughters and her husband, Joe, while the pandemic continues. As Lara and her daughters pick sweet cherries, Lara engages them in the story of her relationship with Peter Duke, an actor with whom she shared the stage and a bed with at summer stock theater on Tom Lake. Highly recommended for a long, lovely weekend. Book discussion groups will enjoy this novel about family and friendship. Tom Lake is a satisfying read.

Excellent book. Patchett delivers a great story with wonderful in depth characters. It's set during the pandemic, but it's not a pandemic story (THANKFULLY!!). It's about mothers and daughters, generations, first loves, and real love that lasts. It's about what we think we want and what we really want. It's about home. Great characters,, great story telling, and beautiful writing. Loved it!

Love love loved this book! It is only March but guessing this will be among my favorite books (if not #1) of 2023. Adored the Northern Michigan setting (my happy place) and theatre back story. The characters were perfection and I didn't want this book to end.