Recommended by the Reviewers Club

Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett

Cover of Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett.

This is a story about youthful love and married love as the mother Lara relates the story to her three adult children of her affair and acting career with Peter Duke, a famous actor, some 30 years previously. The action takes place while the family are together at the parent’s cherry farm.

Patchett guides the reader in gradually until the storyline becomes equally absorbing as to the listening young women. The book portrays emotional struggles with humour and compassion as the daughters contemplate their parent’s lives before they existed. I thought that Laura’s rise to fame was somewhat wishful thinking, and some aspects of the book were a bit contrived, but overall I enjoyed Ann Patchett’s latest novel as much as her earlier titles.

4/5 Stars