Summerland
Summerland opens on a warm June evening and a local tradition: the students of Nantucket High gather for a bonfire on the beach. The graduation-night celebration ends in a car crash that leaves the driver, Penny Alistair, dead and her twin brother in a coma. The other passengers, Penny's boyfriend Jake and her friend Demeter, walk away physically unhurt.
The emotional damage is another matter, and questions linger about what happened in the moments before Penny took the wheel. Across the summer, startling truths emerge about the survivors and their parents: secrets kept, promises broken, hearts betrayed.
Despite its beach-read cover, this is a sombre novel about grief and community. Elin Hilderbrand writes about family and honesty, and argues that new love can still take flight from the ashes of sorrow.
Penny's boyfriend, a passenger in the crash.
Nantucket High student who dies in the crash that opens the novel.
Penny's friend, also a passenger, physically unhurt.
Nantucket caterer and mother of twins Penny and Hobby.
