Summer Island: A Novel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The author of The Great Alone returns with a poignant, funny, luminous novel about a mother and daughter--the complex ties that bind them, the past that separates them, and the healing that comes with forgiveness. "[Kristin] Hannah is superb at delving into the characters' psyches and delineating nuances of feeling."--Washington Post Book World Years ago, Nora Bridge walked out on her marriage and left her daughters behind. She has since become a famous radio talk-show host and newspaper columnist beloved for her moral advice. Her youngest daughter, Ruby, is a struggling comedienne who uses her famous mother as fuel for her bitter, cynical humor. When the tabloids unearth a scandalous secret from Nora's past, their estrangement suddenly becomes dramatic: Nora is injured in an accident and a glossy magazine offers Ruby a fortune to write a tell-all about her mother. Under false pretenses, Ruby returns home to take care of the woman she hasn't spoken to for almost a decade. Nora insists they retreat to Summer Island in the San Juans, to the lovely old house on the water where Ruby grew up, a place filled with childhood memories of love and joy and belonging. There Ruby is also reunited with her first love and his brother. Once, the three of them had been best friends, inseparable. Until the summer that Nora had left and everyone's hearts had been broken. . . . What began as an expose evolves, as Ruby writes, into an exploration of her family's past. Nora is not the woman Ruby has hated all these years. Witty, wise, and vulnerable, she is desperate to reconcile with her daughter. As the magazine deadline draws near and Ruby finishes what has begun to seem to her an act of brutal betrayal, she is forced to grow up and at last to look at her mother--and herself--through the eyes of a woman. And she must, finally, allow herself to love. Summer Island is a beautiful novel, funny, tender, sad, and ultimately triumphant.
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Community Reviews
I read it this summer- anything Hannah writes is good. It was not one of my top favorites of hers, but still worth reading if you like her style. It was more of a beachy read than her more recent books. The mom in this drove me crazy.
I really enjoyed this book. So many members of our book club could relate to familial issues in this book, even though they weren't the same issues. Family dynamics are often difficult and interesting to explore. A life doesn't have to be defined by one event in that person's life
Excellent read about the complexities of family relationships. The characters were relatable as well as likable.
Can’t believe this is the same woman who wrote The Nightingale and The Four Winds. This family drama novel does not resemble Kristin Hannah’s later works at all… as cheesy as a Hallmark movie.
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