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Cover of Tom Lake

Tom Lake

A Novel

Ann Patchett

Ages 14+

Readers rate it 4.0 (348 on Hardcover)

296 pages · Released Aug 1, 2023

Content report card

Tom Lake parent’s guide: what’s inside

Medium confidence

Violence

LGBTQ+ themes

What it offers

Educational value

A note for parents

Tom Lake is a literary novel centered on family relationships, memory, and self-discovery, with adult themes presented thoughtfully rather than graphically. The narrative explores youthful romance and marriage through a mother's reflective storytelling to her daughters, touching on romantic relationships and the complexities of adult life during the pandemic. While generally quiet and introspective, the book addresses mature themes—including a past romance and marriage dynamics—that are better suited to older teens who can appreciate its emotional and philosophical depth.

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From the publisher

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK 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 t... #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK 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.

Shelved under

  • Fiction
  • Strong Character Development
  • Loveable Characters
  • Character driven
  • Not Diverse Characters
  • Diverse Characters
  • Unloveable Characters
  • Weak Character Development
  • A mix driven
  • Plot driven
  • audiobook
  • reflective

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ISBN 9780063327542 · HarperCollins

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