Tom Lake

A sublime new book by Ann Patchett is a gorgeously drawnportrait of love in all its manifestations. Set at the beginning of thepandemic in a cherry orchard in Michigan, the mother, Lara, has her threetwenty-something daughters all back in the nest. As they harvest cherries, theyask her to tell them the story of Peter Duke, the famous actor she shared thestage and a romance with the summer she was twenty-four, acting in “Our Town”together at a theater called Tom Lake. 

As Lara recounts the details of that summer, with ecstasy, hope, heartbreak, possibility, and betrayal, her daughters reexamine their paths and the world as they thought they knew it. This book is wholesome and true, the characters so full of life that they will stay with you long after you read the final words. Tom Lake is another triumph for Ann Patchett.

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