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  • Tom Lake

  • A Novel
  • Written by: Ann Patchett
  • Narrated by: Meryl Streep
  • Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (427 ratings)

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Tom Lake

Written by: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Meryl Streep
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Publisher's Summary

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • READ BY MERYL STREEP

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.

©2023 Ann Patchett (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers
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What listeners say about Tom Lake

Average Customer Ratings
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Great story and delivery

Meryl Streep does a fantastic job with this story. She quietly but masterfully makes the different characters, and their different timelines come alive

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Tom Lake

This book is beautifully narrated and is refreshingly ordinary. Ann Patchett is a gifted writer.She has the capacity to insert bits of life in a startling manner. Much is unpredictable. What a change from the endless books of middle-aged angst .

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Lovely

A lovely story of the beauty of life and love - the paths we chose - and the ones that are chosen for us. Meryl’s tender voice lends so much to a well written story. The writing is succinct and clear painting the scenes in your mind so vividly.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with Lara and her family. Beautiful.

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The narration by Meryl Streep was wonderful

A beautiful story of family and of all the complicated histories we bring. I fell in love with the characters and all their flaws. I feel it would have been an excellent read on it’s own but having the brilliant Meryl Streep bring the people and places so beautifully to life made the audio experience truly memorable. I may even listen again!!

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Narrator was fantastic

I loved the story and the performance. I felt like I was on the orchard with them

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Absolutely marvelous!

Wonderful story beautifully performed. An absolute joy to listen to. Thank you for writing the book and for all the effort put into making this audio book.

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Excellent

So beautiful, story and narration. A story that is dear, and about what is dear - in every sense of the word.

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makes me want to throw out all of my other books

I have listened to a lot of audio books in my lifetime, but this is the first time I've felt as if the narrator was telling me her own story. I suppose I should have expected no less from Meryl.
The story was beautiful. The narration was beautiful. The cover is beautiful.
I report no faults with this in it's entirety.

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Histoire touchante et Meryl Streep parfaite !

Je me suis laissée transporter par cette magnifique histoire. La lecture de Meryl Streep est vraiment parfaite. J’ai écouté beaucoup de livre audio et c’est le premier qui m’émeut au point des larmes … autant par l’histoire que la voix. Je recommande ce titre sans hésiter.

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Meryl Streep is the perfect reader

love Anne Patchett and loved this book. I thought it couldn't get better than Tom Hanks reading the Dutch House, but Meryl Streep exceeds all expectations.

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