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Tom Lake

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Meryl Streep
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Summary

Bloomsbury presents Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, read by Meryl Streep.

The breathtaking new novel from Ann Patchett – a Sunday Times and No. 1 New York Times bestseller

‘Filled with the moments I live for in a story’
BONNIE GARMUS, author of Lessons in Chemistry

‘[Tom Lake] has it all ... Young love, sibling rivalry and deep mother-daughter relationships’
REESE WITHERSPOON

‘One of the most beloved authors of her generation’
SUNDAY TIMES

There's more to every love story than what we choose to tell...

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.

‘One of our greatest living chroniclers of love and marriage … Expect wonder; Patchett always delivers’ ELLE

* SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023 *
* A REESE WITHERSPOON AND BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK *
* A 2023 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE TIMES *

©2023 Ann Patchett (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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What listeners say about Tom Lake

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  • Overall
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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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  • Overall
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Family dynamics with beautiful narration

I felt almost tearful at the end of this story
No idea why because it’s just a story.
Nothing dramatic happens, it’s more a saga and reflection of one woman’s life from youth to contentment with her life and telling her story to her grownup children.
What sets it apart is Meryl Streep’s narration which is soothing so that everything’s right with the world!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Awesome narration by Meryl Streep

A really wonderful soothing listen and a great story about a past love and life before domesticity. Full of love and happiness

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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I have always loved Ann Patchett. Meryl brings more life into the characters than my imagination ever could.

Meryl is the perfect narrator for this fantastic book. I cannot think of another example of an author and a narrator that deserve and compliment each other so well. I may come back to re-listen again in a while, but for now I will enjoy sitting with what the story and performance have both left me with, gratefully.

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Beautiful, gentle, engaging.

This is a wonderful story of past lives and family, read in an engaging and empathetic manner.

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