Black Bear Lake

Liautaud (Summer Nights and Dreams) delivers a heart-wrenching coming-of-age tale in this wise and accomplished psychological novel. Chicago stock trader Adam Craig appears to others to be living the all-American dream, but his marriage to his psychologist wife, Julie, is failing due to unresolved trauma from his childhood. It’s all buried in the summer of 1983, a month spent with family at a camp in northern Wisconsin that ended in tragedy. That summer started out being shadowed by Adam’s mother’s terminal disease, but when sexy, free-spirited babysitter Amy bursts into the family’s lives, she enchants Adam and jeopardizes his relationship with his cousin Dannie.

Amy does much more than enchant Adam—the beautiful Californian also draws the affections of one of the adults, humiliating his wife and their child. When a shocking tragedy splinters Adam’s family into unrecoverable pieces, he vows to never let anyone get close enough to shatter him emotionally, a fearful conviction that decades later, in the novel’s present, leads to the looming disintegration of his marriage. The only way to move on, both his therapist and his wife believe, is for Adam to revisit that tragic summer and finally process the emotions that are holding him hostage.

Liautaud skillfully portrays the crushing load of survivor’s guilt, and how it can poison relationships even decades later when left to fester. The beautifully descriptive prose plays a key role in powering her intriguing story, and Liautaud’s deft plotting and skilled characterization deliver a devastating emotional blow that will resonate with readers long after the final page is turned. The connections between Adam’s past trauma and his struggles to move forward in the present are expertly crafted, and anyone who has ever lost a loved one (or made unwise decisions as a teenager) will find themselves on every page

This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with Blue Handle Publishing.