Literary fiction

Tom Lake

by Ann Patchett

While sheltering together on their Michigan cherry farm, Lara tells her three adult daughters about the summer she acted at Tom Lake and dated the man who later became a famous movie star. The daughters listen for romance and regret, but Lara's account gradually reveals how performance, ambition, illness, and choice led her toward the life they know. Harvest work in the present frames a family conversation about the difference between a youthful love and the person with whom one builds a home. Warm and reflective, this novel suits summer reading for anyone drawn to theater, mothers and daughters, roads not taken, and happiness that looks quieter than celebrity.