A bittersweet tale of family, heartbreak and hope ... Those who want fiction to soothe, bolster and cheer will love it

Guardian

A beautiful, stirring book that sneaks up on you and makes a deep impression ... The moment I finished it, I wanted to go back and start again

Sunday Times

Tom Lake is a gentle, sun-dappled book stuffed with sage parental wisdom

Times

Patchett is the best storyteller of family life ... the characters are so believable and she writes so beautifully

Prima

Few authors can dig into the minutiae of human emotion quite like the Women's Prize-winning author, and Tom Lake is one of her best ... Flitting between past and present, the novel spools out like a film, and ponders timeless questions about love, family and destiny

i

Thoughtful and elegiac in its descriptions of first love and motherhood ... Patchett celebrates not just the smallest events of our lives, but 'small' lives themselves

Financial Times