D blurts out the truth: they’re here to rob her. Cash jabs D in the stomach with his elbow, as if D has divulged information that isn’t already obvious. Marie rises from her recliner. She offers the boys coffee, tea, at least a glass of water.

Every narrative is in an invitation to daydream, and as author, I’m trying to construct and direct those daydreams, but the meaning you’re making, and the images you’re forming in my mind, all of that is beyond my control.

Part of the charm of Tom Lake by Ann Patchett is that it calls into question: what are the stories we tell and what are the stories we keep to ourselves-even from our own children?

With Hamza, Sakina had been fabulous—funny, unpredictable, utterly nonconforming to expectations—but only to the extent allowed by his disapproving gaze and after their big fights, when they weren’t on speaking terms and she was temporarily released from his influence.
Without him, there would be no limit to what she could be.