One Italian Summer

By: Rebecca Serle

Narrated by: Lauren Graham

Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

The heartbreaking new novel from the author of the international best seller In Five Years.

When Katy's mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn't just Katy's mum, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers, and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, the mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer before she met Katy's father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.

But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother's spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents and - of course—delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.

And then Carol appears, healthy and sun-tanned...and 30 years old. Katy doesn't understand what is happening or how—all she can focus on is that somehow, impossibly, she has her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman who came before.

But can we ever truly know our parents? Soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.

Rebecca Serle's next great love story is here, and this time it's between a mother and daughter. With her signature 'heartbreaking and poignant' (Glamour) prose, Serle has crafted a transcendent novel about how we move on after loss and how the people we love never truly leave us.

©2022 Rebecca Serle (P)2022 Quercus Editions Limited

Magical Realism

Started longing for more magical realism because of this book. Easy but deep at the same time. One of my fave read last year

Simple character with no evolution

When Katy loses her mother, she loses her best friend and everything she knows in the world. She chooses this time to ruthlessly discard her husband as she could love no one more than her dead mother and no one could possibly understand her grief; grief which is not really felt in the writing but but rather stated as a form of martyrdom and teenage immaturity.

Katy goes on holiday to Italy, has a series of experiences that her mother would have had earlier in her own life, realises that her mother (shock, horror) had a life beyond her daughter and then grieves about this. It is quite hard to feel for Katy as she is such a simple, small minded character.

I felt that this book was quite in contrast to what I expected and instead of an evolution of the protagonist, moving forward with her life, having new experiences, perhaps exploring Italy; it was an entire book devoted to how much she missed her mother. Additionally and surprisingly, the narration was flat and dry and added to the monotony of the book.

I quite liked ‘In Five Years’ but I’m done after this one.