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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Readers say *One Summer in Savannah* is an emotionally intense debut that explores trauma, healing, and forgiveness, with poetic elements adding to it...
Kill me now. So many things to criticize about this one. First of all - and maybe it's last of all? It's about rape. I swear, I will never willingly EVAH read a book about rape again. Enough! Secondly, the narrator drove me bat-crazy. She read.each and every.sentence.with weird period pauses.throughout the entire.book. She not only did that for the main character, Sarah, but also the romantic male character, Jason. I didn't notice that for any of the other side characters. The third issue I had with it, was the affectation of the Dad character, Hosea. He only spoke in words written by dead poets. Literally, always. Are you kidding me? Okay, this man ran a bookstore. Did he talk to his vendors that way? How in the world did he get his orders processed? Run his taxes, do payroll? It was stupid and ridiculous. My favorite character was the little girl, Alana, who was a charmer. Other than sweet Alana, I couldn't wait for this book to end. I chose to read this author, because I recently enjoyed her other book, "Where The Wildflowers Grow". Wish I'd taken a pass on this one. And, it was way too long, for what it was.
Beautifully written.
This is the second of Harris’ novels that I have read this week. And this one, challenged me in unexpected ways — finished in two days! 📚
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As a debut novel, 𝓞𝓷𝓮 𝓢𝓾𝓶𝓶𝓮𝓻 𝓲𝓷 𝓢𝓪𝓿𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓪𝓱 is an ambitious effort to examine ‘forgiveness’ 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.
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𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬:
Birdie:
I consider her character the most tragic. Her insistence on living out an untruth, inability to grieve, show affection and simply be kind —- 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.
𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬::
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 🤔. This novel is still living within me —- such a good thing. I am certain I will continue to reflect on 𝓞𝓷𝓮 𝓢𝓾𝓶𝓶𝓮𝓻 𝓲𝓷 𝓢𝓪𝓿𝓪𝓷𝓷𝓪𝓱 for a while.
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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 it’ll end, colorfully written. Nice first novel by Terah Shelton Harris. Can’t wait to see where her growth takes her!
Great read, family, tragedy and growth .
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