Summer Island

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ΓÇó The renowned author of The Women presents a poignant,funnyluminous novel about a mother and daughterΓÇöthe complex ties that bind themthe past that separates themand the healing that comes with forgiveness. ΓÇ£[Kristin] Hannah is superb at delving into the charactersΓÇÖ psyches and delineating nuances of feeling.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöWashington Post Book World Years agoNora 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 daughterRubyis a struggling comedienne who uses her famous mother as fuel for her bittercynical humor. When the tabloids unearth a scandalous secret from NoraΓÇÖs pasttheir 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 pretensesRuby 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 Juansto the lovely old house on the water where Ruby grew upa place filled with childhood memories of love and joy and belonging. There Ruby is also reunited with her first love and his brother. Oncethe three of them had been best friendsinseparable. Until the summer that Nora had left and everyone’s hearts had been broken. . . . What began as an expose evolvesas Ruby writesinto an exploration of her familyΓÇÖs past. Nora is not the woman Ruby has hated all these years. Wittywiseand vulnerableshe 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 betrayalshe is forced to grow up and at last to look at her motherΓÇöand herselfΓÇöthrough the eyes of a woman. And she mustfinallyallow herself to love.