Staff Pick
Emily doesn't know what to do with herself. She and her husband had plans to renovate the camp she inherited from her aunt, but work has stalled. With no other job prospects in sight, she is adrift in a listless echo of the eternity of childhood summers. So when she discovers a magnetic young woman staying on their property, she is more intrigued than alarmed. Despite her better judgment, Emily is drawn to Stella and they quickly become very close: friends, or maybe something more. But a powerful current runs beneath their relationship, one that threatens to become an undertow. I was enchanted with this dreamy novel, with the questions Shapiro raises about intimacy, identity, and purpose. With its hypnotic pacing and prose, The Summer Demands is as seductive as a secret. Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"Shapiro's The Summer Demands is sultry, shrewd, unnerving, and simply magnetic. I was hooked from beginning to end." --Rebecca Kauffman, author of
The Gunners On the verge of her fortieth birthday, and shaken by a recent miscarriage, Emily inherits an abandoned summer camp in Massachusetts. She and her husband move onto the property and make grand plans to revitalize the land. But they soon discover that their inheritance includes an unexpected guest. On a walk through the old campgrounds she once frequented as a girl, Emily discovers, living undetected in one of the cabins, a magnetic twenty-two-year-old named Stella.
As the two women begin spending time together--talking and drinking, swimming in the lake, watching seductive French films through long afternoons--Emily finds herself playing at performing various roles relative to Stella: friend, mother, lover. Each encounter they share promises to bring Emily a little closer to an understanding of her own identity, but it also puts her marriage and future at risk. How much does she really know about Stella? Why is Stella here, and what does she want, and what might she take with her, if and when she leaves?
Taking place over a single summer in a landscape that refuses to be tamed, The Summer Demands is a beautiful, quietly startling exploration of the sting of seduction, of unspoken female rage, and of how desire and ambition shift over time. It advances Deborah Shapiro's place as one of America's most captivating writers--a novelist who "adroitly conveys women's complicated intimacy" (The New York Times Book Review).
Synopsis
"A sun-saturated tale of love and longing. . . Smart, funny, nuanced and seductive." --The Chicago Tribune
Named one of the best books of the summer by O: The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, The Chicago Tribune, BBC Culture, NYLON and more
On the verge of her fortieth birthday and shaken by a recent miscarriage, Emily inherits an abandoned summer camp in Massachusetts. She and her husband move onto the property and make grand plans to revitalize the land. But they soon discover that their inheritance includes an unexpected guest. On a walk through the old campgrounds she once frequented as a girl, Emily finds, living undetected in one of the cabins, a magnetic twenty-two-year-old named Stella.
As the two women begin spending time together--talking and drinking, swimming in the lake, watching seductive French films through long afternoons--Emily finds herself playing at performing various roles relative to Stella: friend, mother, lover. Each encounter they share promises to bring Emily a little closer to an understanding of her own identity, but it also puts her marriage and future at risk. How much does she really know about Stella? Why is Stella here, and what does she want, and what might she take with her, if and when she leaves?
Taking place over a single summer in a landscape that refuses to be tamed, The Summer Demands is a beautiful, quietly startling exploration of the sting of seduction, of unspoken female rage, and of how desire and ambition shift over time. It advances Deborah Shapiro's place as one of America's most captivating writers--a novelist who "adroitly conveys women's complicated intimacy" (The New York Times Book Review).
Synopsis
Taking place over a single summer in an abandoned Massachusetts summer camp, this quietly menacing novel explores the sting of seduction, unspoken female rage, and how desire and ambition shift over time to reveal the "undercurrents between our younger and older selves" (O, The Oprah Magazine).
After Emily inherits an abandoned summer camp in Massachusetts just before her fortieth birthday, she and her husband David move onto the property with grand plans to fix it up. Instead, Emily finds herself drifting, grieving her recent miscarriage and her own perceived lack of ambition, while David works in the city. Until the day Emily discovers that their new property includes an unexpected guest. Living undetected in one of the cabins is a magnetic twenty-two-year-old named Stella. Their immediate and intense connection expands and contracts over the course of an single summer, calling all of Emily's relationships, including her marriage, into closer scrutiny.
As the two women begin spending time together―talking and drinking, swimming in the lake, watching seductive French films through long afternoons―Emily finds herself playing at performing various roles relative to Stella: friend, mother, lover. Each encounter they share promises to bring Emily a little closer to an understanding of her own identity, but it also puts her marriage and future at risk. How much does she really know about Stella? Why is Stella here, and what does she want, and what might she take with her, if and when she leaves?
Named one of the best books of the summer by O, The Oprah Magazine, this "sun-saturated tale of love and longing" is a "smart, funny, nuanced and seductive" read (Chicago Tribune). Startling yet dreamlike, The Summer Demands marks Deborah Shapiro as a master at capturing complex relationships and the electricity of what passes unsaid between people.
Synopsis
Taking place over a single summer at an abandoned Massachusetts summer camp, this "sun-saturated tale of love and longing" explores the sting of seduction and how desire and ambition can shift through time and experience (Chicago Tribune). After Emily inherits an abandoned summer camp in Massachusetts just before her fortieth birthday, she and her husband David move onto the property with grand plans to fix it up. Instead, Emily finds herself drifting, grieving her recent miscarriage and her own perceived lack of ambition, while David works in the city. Until the day Emily discovers that their new property includes an unexpected guest. Living undetected in one of the cabins is a magnetic twenty-two-year-old named Stella. Their immediate and intense connection expands and contracts over the course of an single summer, calling all of Emily's relationships, including her marriage, into closer scrutiny.
As the two women begin spending time together―talking and drinking, swimming in the lake, watching seductive French films through long afternoons―Emily finds herself playing at performing various roles relative to Stella: friend, mother, lover. Each encounter they share promises to bring Emily a little closer to an understanding of her own identity, but it also puts her marriage and future at risk. How much does she really know about Stella? Why is Stella here, and what does she want, and what might she take with her, if and when she leaves?
Named one of the best books of the summer by O, The Oprah Magazine, this "sun-saturated tale of love and longing" is a "smart, funny, nuanced and seductive" read (Chicago Tribune). Startling yet dreamlike, The Summer Demands marks Deborah Shapiro as a master at capturing complex relationships and the electricity of what passes unsaid between people.