I loved her book the Dutch House. This one was nice as well.
I especially liked the setting in Michgan on the farm.
The history of the family and the flashbacks were a nice touch to the story.
Recommended for fans of family dramas

A poignant pandemic novel that intertwines past and present. Set in the spring of 2020, it follows Lara, her husband, and their daughters as they navigate life on their family orchard, reflecting on Lara’s past as an actress at Tom Lake, a summer stock theater in Michigan, where she performed in the play Our Town and had a romance with a soon-to-be famous actor.

Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake is a stunning read that earns all 5 stars. Set during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the novel follows Lara Nelson and her daughters—Emily, Maisie, and Nell—as they quarantine at their family orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, Lara recounts her time as a young actress in New Hampshire, focusing on her romance with Peter Duke, who later became a famous actor.

The daughters are eager for details about Lara’s past, and each responds differently to her revelations and then reflects on her own life. Through these stories, Patchett explores themes of love, memory, and the choices that shape our lives. Her writing is simply gorgeous—smooth, vivid, and magical. You can almost taste the cherries and feel the summer breeze as you read.

Patchett seamlessly blends past and present, creating real, heartfelt characters and deep connections between them. The novel’s exploration of love, family, and time is relatable and comforting, reminding us of the lasting power of stories and memories.

Patchett is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. Her novel, The Dutch House, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Tom Lake is a writer’s novel—I thought it was brilliant! While the story is good, the prose sold it for me. If you appreciate exquisite, lyrical writing and a multilayered story that tugs at your heartstrings, this book is for you. I supplemented the eBook with audio and Meryl Streep did a phenomenal job narrating it.

** Thanks to the publisher for a review copy. The opinions are my own.

If the song Cardigan were a novel, it would be Tom Lake. This story takes place on a cherry orchard in Michigan in the Spring of 2020, as a mother tells her daughters the story of her relationship with a man who went on to become a famous movie star. It definitely starts off too slow - I only kept going because I love Ann Patchett. Things change at the halfway point and then get better and better and better. But if it weren’t for my devotion to Ann Patchett, I would have dropped it around 1/3 through. Now that it’s over, I want to go back.

Ann Patchett is wonderful and I have been a fan of hers for years. I was reading this at the pool for the last two days and a couple people asked me what I was reading and I had a hard time describing what it was about, just that it was lovely. Loved the story and the characters and a little piece at the end really hit home for me. Great read.

Beautiful novel! I definitely need to listen to this one next time! I always love Ann Patchett's books and this one is definitely one of her best in my opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper for the advanced digital copy of the book.

I received this as a free e-ARC from NetGalley.

I love Ann Patchett and this book was not a disappointment. It tells the story of a mother, Lara, and a famous actor, Peter Duke, with whom she had a romance and and her acting at a famous theater, Tom Lake, years before. The three daughters beg their mom to tell the story over the course of that Spring 2020 picking cherries at the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. It is the pandemic and no employees are able to pick the cherries and the family must do it themselves. Along the way of telling the story everyone examines their lives, their choices, their relationships and everything they thought they knew abut themselves, others, and the world.

The pandemic hit everyone hard and nothing has really been the same since. The setting sounded idyllic, Northern Michigan in the Spring, an amazing orchard, love, marriage, family, and happiness. I loved the characters and thought they were well developed. The story was interesting and I bet the audiobook would be lovely with Meryl Steep as the narrator. At times, the book dragged and took a little bit to get back into it. I would definitely try this as an audiobook.

This books seems to be fairly polarizing - people either love it or find it boring. I fell in the second camp. I just found it a bit sleepy and slow. I really wanted to love it more, and I appreciated the writing,, but it didn’t make me want to read more.

So I have to admit that this is my first Ann Patchett novel. What a beautifully written and deftly woven tapestry of a story. I couldn’t help but empathize with Lara’s 1st person narrative as she relays the story of her life before motherhood to her three daughters and how she navigated love and loss.


While I haven’t been to Northern Michigan before, I have family in the Grand Rapids area and will be adding Traverse City to my travel bucket list, Our Town to my theater must-see list, and Ann Patchett’s previous novels to my TBR pile!



Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC

Ann Patchett's done it again! I always love her books and this one was no exception. The story itself was so good, and the description of the setting was really enjoyable. I love a book with multiple storylines, so this one fit the bill. I will definitely be recommending this to both patrons and friends alike. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper for this ARC!

Check out Tom Lake...

If you like books featuring…
Character driven novels
Slow, meandering family drama
Summer in Michigan

Great for fans of…
Marilyn Robinson
Wendell Berry

Ann Patchett is a wonderful writer. I found the story to be a little slow but the e ding was very satisfying.

I didn’t get through this book at all. I found it hard to follow the plot. I didn’t know where the book was going. I really wanted to like this book.

One of the best books I read last year. Sweet and cozy but such a rich story. I was transported into a story within a story. Beautiful and unique.

I LOVE Ann Patchett, but for some reason (and I lay the blame entirely on me) I could not get past the first few chapters. There was something about the voice of the narrator that was, for want of a better term, off-putting. I'm absolutely sire that I am in the minority (based on Tom Lake's continued place on various bestseller lists), but I have to say that this is that rare piece of writing (fiction or nonfiction) by Ann Patchett that I did not finish.

A qualifying note: I am not giving up! I will try the audiobook.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett is a slow burn of a book. I can just picture myself among the daughters, listening avidly as I pick cherries & my mom tells me the story of her young adulthood. Ann Patchett has such a way with creating compelling characters and realistic family stories. I never knew exactly where the story was going or how it would end up, but I knew I was in good hands. Tom Lake touches on themes of young adulthood and the decisions both big and small that change our life. It's wrong loves and right loves. But my favorite thing of all was the cherry orchard as a setting. I listened to this on audiobook narrated by the lovely Meryl Streep and I thank NetGalley for the opportunity for an advanced reader copy.

Absolutely loved this book!! While I have never seen Our Town, I have it on my list as I think it will help me understand this book a little bit better. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

Ann Patchett is one of my all-time favourite authors, and Tom Lake did not disappoint. This quiet novel packed SO much in, and I savoured and enjoyed every page. I will treasure this story for a long time to come and will forever be searching for more contemplative novels like this.

Best book I read in 2023. It was a beautiful and remarkable book. Pacing was perfect, although people who, like a lot of action in their reading, may not love it. The character development was stellar. I adored this book from cover to cover. I have been telling everyone to read it!

I simultaneously enjoyed nearly every moment of this book and also wanted more to it. The premise of this story is a mother telling the story of her young adult life to her daughters who are around the same age she was at the time they told it. The idea is that we move beyond who we were then to the adults we are now (and the adult version is somehow better?).
It was told exclusively through the mother’s POV with just dialogue interjections from the daughters about their take on things. I wish the daughters were more fully developed characters.
Also a whole lot of this books focuses on the play Our Town. If I’ve seen/read our town it was when I was in high school but apparently I’m really supposed to care about it.