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Book Summary and Reviews of Summer People by Elin Hilderbrand

Summer People by Elin Hilderbrand

Summer People

A Novel

by Elin Hilderbrand

  • Published:
  • May 2003, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Every summer the Newton family retreats to their beloved home on Nantucket for three months of sunshine, cookouts, and bonfires on the beach. But this summer will not be like any other.

When Arch Newton, a prominent New York attorney, dies in a plane crash on his way home from a business trip, his beautiful widow, Beth, can barely keep things together. Above all, though, she decides that she must continue the family tradition of going to Nantucket, and at the same time fulfill a promise that Arch made before he died.

Beth invites Marcus, the son of Arch's final and most challenging client, to spend the summer with her and her teenage twins, Winnie and Garrett, who have mixed reactions to sharing their special summer place with this stranger. Always a place of peace before, Nantucket becomes the scene of roiling emotions and turbulent passions as Marcus, Winnie, and Garrett learn about loss, first love, and betrayal. And when they stumble upon a shocking secret from Beth's past, they must keep it from destroying the family they've been trying so hard to heal.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Things get more twisted at every turn, with enough lies and betrayals to fuel a whole season of soap operas...readers will be hooked." ―Publishers Weekly

"Hilderbrand's third Nantucket-set novel effectively juxtaposes the surface calm of the season with the turbulence of the characters' lives. More entertaining beach reading from the author of The Beach Club and Nantucket Nights." ―Booklist

"Summer People is striking not only for the ingenuity of its riveting plot, but also for the acute sense of character and the finely tuned craftsmanship with which Elin Hilderbrand brings its every nuance to life." ―Madison Smartt Bell, author of Charm City

This information about Summer People was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Elin Hilderbrand Author Biography

Elin Hilderbrand is the author of twenty-eight novels, including The Hotel Nantucket. She is a proud 1991 graduate of Johns Hopkins University where she majored in Writing Seminars. In her senior year at Hopkins, Elin had her first short story, "Misdirection," accepted for publication in Seventeen Magazine.

After a short stint working in publishing and teaching in New York City, she moved to Nantucket permanently in 1994. She attended the University of Iowa writers workshop and earned her MFA in 1998, and published her first novel, The Beach Club, in the summer of 2000. Her 2019 novel, Summer of "69 SUMMER OF '69 was her first novel to debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. She is the mother of three children and loves riding the Peloton, cooking, and going to the beach. She...

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