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Tom Lake cover art

Tom Lake

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Meryl Streep
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Summary

THIS SUMMER, DIVE INTO TOM LAKE – A BREATH-TAKING NOVEL FROM ANN PATCHETT

This is a story about Peter Duke who went on to be a famous actor. This is a story about falling in love with Peter Duke who wasn’t famous at all. It’s about falling so wildly in love with him – the way one will at twenty-four – that it felt like jumping off a roof at midnight. There was no way to foresee the mess it would come to in the end.  

It’s spring and Lara’s three grown daughters have returned to the family orchard. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the one story they’ve always longed to hear – of the film star with whom she shared a stage, and a romance, years before.  

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents lead before their children are born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.

©2023 Ann Patchett (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

‘Filled with the moments I live for in a story – careful, compelling insights into human nature, the most effortless humour, and the kind of vivid descriptions that reveal exactly how something is’ BONNIE GARMUS, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

‘Beautifully imagined, funny and tender ... Ann Patchett leads us with the intelligence, detail, wit and nuance of the greatest chroniclers of human nature and relationships’ RACHEL JOYCE, bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

What listeners say about Tom Lake

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    4 out of 5 stars

Very lovely; very American.

Merely Streep is a dream narrator and she could read me stories forever. The novel is beautifully crafted, evoking landscapes and characters in a perfectly paced way. It is also a tribute to American insularity. I can imagine no other novel if it’s ambition from anywhere else in the world being so contained in the bubble of its own culture. Even Chekhov is somehow appropriated.

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4 people found this helpful

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Lovely read - calming and a journey

I really enjoyed this book, the story of a young actress doing Summer Stock and the cast of characters around her was so well written. Engaging yet gentle, and with some surprises woven into the story, it was a great reflection of life well lived, the ups and downs. Narration by Meryl Streep fit beautifully. I'd recommend it!

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1 person found this helpful

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Glorious!

This is one of the best audiobooks I have listened to. The combination of Meryl Streep’s voice and the golden, nostalgic, bittersweet storytelling is absolutely sublime. I am recommending to everyone I can.

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Superb!

Meryl Streep! What a treat. It is impossible to imagine what this book would be like with anybody else reading it, including myself. I was about to by the book but am so glad I went for audiobook!!! Such a superb experience!

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  • Overall
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the narration

it was a wholesome simple story that I found myself listening to completely engaged.

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Gentle dreamy story

Loved Meryl Streep’s narration. Her voice is soothing and fits in with the idyllic setting of cherry orchards and family life. The girls all evolved in their own reactions to the story of their mother’s past.

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A Comfort Read but not Quite

this is a brilliantly accurate description of summer stock theatre with a moving plot - is a romance about a way of life. I couldn't stop listening and want to start all over again.

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Immersive writing

A Beautifully written and read book which was fully engaging from the start
To the finish.

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  • Overall
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    3 out of 5 stars

Charming gentle romantic story

Narration and gentle story - a feel good story that leaves you wanting to spend quality time with your family and enjoy the now

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A beautiful reading of a wonderful book.

A real treat for Ann Patchett fans - a sort of magic happens when read by Meryl Streep. She’s totally believable, as is this world of cherry trees, where stories of the past are the silver lining of the time that stretched out during the cloud of pandemic lockdown.

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