Summer People

'A perfect poolside page-turner' CLOSER

'Tender, complex, complicated and passionate. Stunning.' VERONICA HENRY

'So evocative. A great summer read!' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

'A truly beautiful story of love, desire, identity and courage - Julie Cohen is at her spellbinding best' ROSIE WALSH

'Loved every page!' CLAIRE DYER

'A story of love and friendship, it's captivating!' HEAT

'A startling beautiful firework of a novel' LoveReading

A love that can't be stopped.

A secret that will change everything...

Marriages end with a whisper, not a bang. Not an argument, which is after all about passion, waves crashing on a shore, but with the small pockets of coldness that an argument creates. It's like islands. They don't sink like Atlantis. They wear away, little by little, until all you've got left is a single rock and a light. A warning to safer travellers to stay away.

The last time Vee left the shores of Unity Island, she thought she'd left forever. But this summer, she's returning with her charming husband, Mike.

Vee's unexpected arrival, this time as one of the wealthy 'summer people', sets the small island community alight with gossip. What's more, her childhood best friend, Sterling, is furious that she's come back - Vee abandoned him when he needed her most.

And then Vee meets Rachel, Sterling's wife, and a spark is ignited within her that she can't extinguish. And as summer turns to autumn, long-buried secrets emerge that will cause a storm greater than any of them could ever have imagined.

But when autumn comes, who will sail away with the tide and who will choose to stay behind on the island...?

Julie Cohen grew up in the western mountains of Maine. She studied English Literature at Brown University and Cambridge University. At the University of Reading she gained an MPhil by research into fairies in nineteenth century children's literature. Her award-winning novels have been translated into seventeen languages and have sold over a million copies. She has twice been selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club (with DEAR THING in 2014 and TOGETHER in 2018).

Julie is a popular speaker and teacher of creative writing, including classes for The Guardian, Literature Wales, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She runs an oversubscribed literary consultancy with many of her clients going on to publication. Julie is Vice President of the Romantic Novelists' Association, and Patron of Berkshire literacy charity ABC To Read.

For more information visit www.julie-cohen.com and she is on Twitter as @julie_cohen.

'I stayed up late, gripped. I loved it' MARIAN KEYES on Spirited A love that can't be stopped. A secret that will change everything... Marriages end with a whisper, not a bang. Not an argument, which is after all about passion, waves crashing on a shore, but with the small pockets of coldness that an argument creates. It's like islands. They don't sink like Atlantis. They wear away, little by little, until all you've got left is a single rock and a light. A warning to safer travellers to stay away. The last time Vee left the shores of Unity Island, she thought she'd left forever. But this summer, she's returning with her charming husband, Mike.Vee's unexpected arrival, this time as one of the wealthy 'summer people', sets the small island community alight with gossip. What's more, her childhood best friend, Sterling, is furious that she's come back - Vee abandoned him when he needed her most.And then Vee meets Rachel, Sterling's wife, and a spark is ignited within her that she can't extinguish. And as summer turns to autumn, long-buried secrets emerge that will cause a storm greater than any of them could ever have imagined. But when autumn comes, who will sail away with the tide and who will choose to stay behind on the island...?

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