One Summer in Savannah: A Story of Trauma, Healing, and Forgiveness

"Nothing short of astonishing. The best writers are brave writers, and Harris has proven herself among those ranks." --Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author of Black Buck

Coming home means risking everything she's built and confronting everything she's survived.

Eight years after surviving a sexual assault, Sara Lancaster has rebuilt her life far from her hometown of Savannah, Georgia. She pours herself into her poetry and her daughter, Alana: a precocious eight-year-old with a brilliant mind and a wild imagination. But when her father suffers a stroke, Sara has no choice but to return to the place that failed her and the people who never believed her story.

Back in Savannah, Sara steps into her father's shoes at his beloved indie bookstore and tries to maintain a low profile. Her only priority is to keep Alana safe--and hidden--from the Wyler family, whose powerful, well-respected son is serving time for Sara's assault. What Sara doesn't expect is to discover that Jacob Wyler--her attacker's identical twin brother and once her teenage crush--has also returned to town, dealing with his own grief and shame. When the two reconnect, Sara and Jacob are drawn together by their shared losses, their love of language and science, and the ache of unresolved questions.

One Summer in Savannah is a powerful debut about confronting trauma, reclaiming agency, and discovering unexpected paths toward forgiveness.

"An unforgettable portrayal of familial tragedy, bravery, and redemption." --Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman's Daughter

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Published Jul 4, 2023

464 pages

Average rating: 7.71

180 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

โœจ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *One Summer in Savannah* is an engaging debut with relatable characters and themes of trauma, healing, and forgiveness. Many appreciate th...

Black Girls & Books
Sep 23, 2025
This is the second of Harrisโ€™ novels that I have read this week. And this one, challenged me in unexpected ways โ€” finished in two days! ๐Ÿ“š :::: As a debut novel, ๐“ž๐“ท๐“ฎ ๐“ข๐“พ๐“ถ๐“ถ๐“ฎ๐“ป ๐“ฒ๐“ท ๐“ข๐“ช๐“ฟ๐“ช๐“ท๐“ท๐“ช๐“ฑ is an ambitious effort to examine โ€˜forgivenessโ€™ in the context of intimate violence, pain, community, family, love, grief and possibility. And, Harris meets this challenge. She presents to the reader a journey of forgiveness that is neither linear nor certain. :::: ๐“๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐ฐ๐จ ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ: Birdie: I consider her character the most tragic. Her insistence on living out an untruth, inability to grieve, show affection and simply be kind โ€”- greatly costs her. Hosea: His poetic dialogue is beautiful. Harris skillfully presents and interprets his words into the novel. I would have appreciated seeing more references to poets of color and women. ๐Ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐“๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ ๐ก๐ญ๐ฌ:: I am impressed by Harris. The ease of her writing midst the complexities of her novels captivates me. Her writing is vivid, disarming and quite lovely. There is something about her style that makes me trust her in handling sensitive/intimate harms ๐Ÿค”. This novel is still living within me โ€”- such a good thing. I am certain I will continue to reflect on ๐“ž๐“ท๐“ฎ ๐“ข๐“พ๐“ถ๐“ถ๐“ฎ๐“ป ๐“ฒ๐“ท ๐“ข๐“ช๐“ฟ๐“ช๐“ท๐“ท๐“ช๐“ฑ for a while. Read it! Letโ€™s talk about it.
SunnE๐ŸŒป
Apr 30, 2025
3/10 stars
Engaging enough to keep the pages turning but not quite the tone or storyline of my personal interest. Lots to follow, you can guess where itโ€™ll end, colorfully written. Nice first novel by Terah Shelton Harris. Canโ€™t wait to see where her growth takes her!
Melshizzle
Jan 11, 2025
9/10 stars
Great read, family, tragedy and growth .
Koriander
Jan 08, 2025
I read this for book club and an upcoming book fest - https://ameliaislandbookfestival.... February book club read, discussion questions were included in the hardback copy. I thought this was a very well done book on forgiveness and moving on from past trauma. Our main character Sara suffered a rape as a teen which resulted in a child, a child who's existence she hid from her home town of Savannah, GA, including the father and family of the child. Her rapist Daniel, who was from the wealthy powerful Wyler's family, went to trial and was sentenced for his crime but the town never forgot the case. When her father's health falters, she comes out of hiding to be with her father and reluctantly exposes her child to the family she is afraid will try to take her daughter from her. She develops a relationship with Jacob, the other brother of the man who raped her, and learns about his own struggle with his family and the repercussions of the events that happened to her in his own family. The author did a very nice job of developing relationships between Sara and Jacob, and all the family members including Sara's genius daughter Alana.
Tye Price
Dec 11, 2024
2/10 stars
All I got from this is that Jacob & Saraโ€™s future children would be siblings/cousins.

I didnโ€™t enjoy this book and was definitely not moved by the romance. It just wasnโ€™t believable to me. In no world would a woman fall in love with her assaulterโ€™s identical twin brother. She fears water because of the memory of that day but doesnโ€™t speak of any fear of having her assaulterโ€™s identical face over her/beside her during intimate moments. Itโ€™s one thing to be forgiving which was the main theme in the book but this just wasnโ€™t it.

Also disliked that her father only spoke using poetry. Actually skipped any scenes with him in it because I was annoyed.

One last thing the assaulterโ€™s family including love interest Jacob infuriated me. They continuously spoke about Danielโ€™s genius and how impactful he would have been in the world as a way to absolve him of his crime. One may argue his crime shouldnโ€™t define him but it was a disservice to Sara to pretend like he didnโ€™t commit the act. Plus I only believe he was remorseful because of his diagnosis.

This book wasnโ€™t for me & Iโ€™m honestly confused by some of the raving reviews.

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