Summer Island by Kristin Hannah

Kristen Hannah is an American writer, publishing works that focus on the lives of women, particularly in challenging times. Her most recent novel The women topped the Sunday Times best-seller list; some others have won fiction awards. One of these was Firefly Lane which was a block-buster Netflix series. The nightingale is soon to become a major movie. Hannah often writes historical fiction but Summer Island is set in contemporary times.

Summer Island is an enjoyable light read- quite riveting and unputdownable but nonetheless predictable. Hannah explores the motherhood/sacrifice theme especially the fraught mother/daughter relationship. She delves into domestic violence and the long inter-generational hangover that can exist because of the responses that are developed in women who have lived through the experience. Thirty-four year old Ruby Bridge is the central character. Plucky and genuinely funny at times, she is also annoyingly good at making wrong choices. As a result of her mother walking out on the family when she was young, Ruby has developed a brittle and aggressive persona - a protective shell around her that does not allow anyone close. She is a failed comedienne. When her mother, Nora, a now famous radio talk show host who gives advice on life matters, is beset with a very public career-destroying scandal from the past, Ruby is offered a large sum of money and ongoing work for telling the story and betraying her mother. This she accepts. Her mother, after a car accident, is recuperating in the old family home on Summer Island and she needs care. Ruby agrees to take on that role with the idea of collecting more information to further tarnish her mother. 

Here is where ethical choices and forgiveness begin to butt heads with betrayal, retaliation and revenge. Which will win out? Ruby learns that not all is as she has thought - that a child may gather certain information and being a child remain unaware of other perspectives and truths. She learns that not all is black and white. As in many of her other books, Hannah explores the theme of characters grappling with difficult choices, finding strength and learning to prioritise others' needs above their own. In a way, Summer Island is a "growing up" story; a getting of belated wisdom story. The family relationships are the focus of Summer Island and the issues are familiar and relateable: hope, determination, marriage, infidelity, loss and dealing with consequences.

There is romance too. In finding her true self and reuniting with her first love and his terminally ill brother, Ruby may just be able to redirect the downward spiral of her life. 

Although Summer Island follows a predictable plot it is nevertheless an enjoyable, entertaining read.

Themes: Mother/daughter relationships, Family breakdown, Forgiveness, Cancer, romance.

Wendy Jeffrey