Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

On their family cherry orchard in Northern Michigan, Lara’s three grown daughters ask their mother to tell them about the summer she spent performing at Tom Lake, a theater company where she fell in love with a young actor who would later become famous.

As the family works together through the harvest, Lara tells the story of that long-ago summer: the choices she made, the life she imagined for herself, and the love affair her daughters are desperate to understand. Moving between Lara’s youth and the life she has built decades later, the novel slowly reveals how differently we can understand our past from the vantage point of the present.

Tender and beautifully observed, Tom Lake is a novel about youthful love and lasting love, daughters and mothers, memory, and the unexpected paths that lead us to the lives we ultimately choose.