First off, this is (said with some shame) the first novel I've ever read from Ann Patchett, and so I can only judge it on it's own merits.

Lara's three grown up daughters return home to help with the cherry harvest on their family farm, and finally get to hear of their mother's romance with a famous film star.....

It's a reflective novel, taking a gentle pace through first love and beyond. Combined with themes of motherhood, different kinds of love and what it means to be happy. This is a thoughtful, introspective novel that gradually gets beneath the reader's skin in the very best of ways.