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The Book of Summers
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Review
'A charming debut novel'
(Woman's Own )'[A] vivid coming-of-age story'
(Woman & Home )'A compelling coming-of-age story with a superb twist'
(Easy Living )'Emylia Hall creates an enchanting and vivid picture of Beth's summers in rural Hungary... It's an addictive read and an amazing debut for Emylia Hall'
(www.cosmopolitan.co.uk )'Fab debut about a woman reliving the summers she spent in rural Hungary'
(Heat )'Heartfelt and evocative... all we need now is for summer to finally arrive'
(Grazia )'Fantastically evocative and sun-drenched with a twist, it's guaranteed a place on our summer holiday reading list'
(www.stylist.co.uk )Review
'A charming debut novel'
(Woman's Own )'A vivid coming-of-age story'
(Woman & Home )'A compelling coming-of-age story with a superb twist'
(Easy Living )'Emylia Hall creates an enchanting and vivid picture of Beth's summers in rural Hungary... It's an addictive read and an amazing debut for Emylia Hall'
(www.cosmopolitan.co.uk )'Fab debut about a woman reliving the summers she spent in rural Hungary'
(Heat )'Heartfelt and evocative... all we need now is for summer to finally arrive'
(Grazia )'Fantastically evocative and sun-drenched with a twist, it's guaranteed a place on our summer holiday reading list'
(www.stylist.co.uk )'Enchantingly evocative'
(Marie Claire ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Book of Summers is about a woman called Beth who receives a package from Hungary. Initially upset by its arrival, and angry at her father for delivering it to her, the reader is treated to a slow and intricate revelation of its content.
This is a gentle and poetic book with detailed descriptions which carry you off to a place far away - unless of course you already live in Hungary. Emylia Hall takes the mundane and trivial and turns them into something magical.
Photographs from childhood holidays in Hungary trigger a chain of memories which essentially make up the story. Overall it is a calm and quiet story that gently rocks the reader but doesn't really take them anywhere.
For me, as beautiful as the descriptive writing was, there was just too much of it. I felt that each description started to become a list of ideas. And nothing really happens; even the one thing that does happen didn't really shock or excite me and so I felt that Beth's reaction to it was too much - but maybe that was just me.
The whole story is really the internalised thoughts of Beth, both as a girl and as a woman. Consequently there is an imbalance between lengthy commentary and brief episodes of dialogue.
In spite of this, I think the book will be popular, just as sometimes it is nice, on a warm summer's day, to simply lean back in a gently rocking boat - it's not going anywhere, nothing really happens but you know life is happening all around you, and it is a perfectly pleasant experience.
This is a gentle and poetic book with detailed descriptions which carry you off to a place far away - unless of course you already live in Hungary. Emylia Hall takes the mundane and trivial and turns them into something magical.
Photographs from childhood holidays in Hungary trigger a chain of memories which essentially make up the story. Overall it is a calm and quiet story that gently rocks the reader but doesn't really take them anywhere.
For me, as beautiful as the descriptive writing was, there was just too much of it. I felt that each description started to become a list of ideas. And nothing really happens; even the one thing that does happen didn't really shock or excite me and so I felt that Beth's reaction to it was too much - but maybe that was just me.
The whole story is really the internalised thoughts of Beth, both as a girl and as a woman. Consequently there is an imbalance between lengthy commentary and brief episodes of dialogue.
In spite of this, I think the book will be popular, just as sometimes it is nice, on a warm summer's day, to simply lean back in a gently rocking boat - it's not going anywhere, nothing really happens but you know life is happening all around you, and it is a perfectly pleasant experience.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This novel tells the story of Beth, the child of an English father and Hungarian mother. Her parents separate when Beth is only 9. Her mother, Marika, moves to Hungary and Beth stays with her father in Devon. Beth stays in contact with her mother through letters and phone calls and every summer, as a child, Beth returned to Hungary to spend a holiday with her mother and her new partner, Zoltan. Beth loves these holidays and spends most of the year longing for them to come round. As a child, she even considers that when she is old enough she will move permanently to Hungary.
The novel starts when Beth is 30 and living in London. She receives a letter from Zoltan, informing her that her mother has died. Enclosed with the letter is a photo album/scrapbook entitled "The Book of Summers". This had been hand-made by Marika and it describes very evocatively and very lovingly, the 7 summers which Beth spent in Hungary, from the age of 10 to 16. It is clear that Beth is now estranged from her mother and has had no contact with her since she was last in Hungary at the age of 16. Why she is estranged we do not know but all is revealed as Beth reads the book and remembers and re-lives her 7 summers in Hungary.
This novel is very atmospheric, very evocative. We see the contrast between cool, damp, green Devon and hot sun-bleached Hungary. We also see the contrast between Beth's reserved, conventional father and her colourful, vivacious, flamboyant mother. There is a stark contrast between Beth's day to day life in Devon and her summers in Hungary. Her father is loving, but undemonstrative and communications between them are virtually non-existent. Beth feels that she is only truly alive when she is in Hungary.
This is also a novel about family secrets and how devastating the consequences can be, when the secret eventually comes to light. The longer the secret is kept, the more tragic those consequences will be.
I enjoyed this book very much. It is well-written and the characters are all vividly portrayed. As I have already said, it is very evocative and we are given a very rich portrayal of life in Hungary. The mystery of why Beth is estranged from her mother keeps us reading to the end. This is Emylia Hall's first novel and I shall certainly be looking out for further novels written by her. Altogether a very enjoyable read, which I am happy to recommend.
The novel starts when Beth is 30 and living in London. She receives a letter from Zoltan, informing her that her mother has died. Enclosed with the letter is a photo album/scrapbook entitled "The Book of Summers". This had been hand-made by Marika and it describes very evocatively and very lovingly, the 7 summers which Beth spent in Hungary, from the age of 10 to 16. It is clear that Beth is now estranged from her mother and has had no contact with her since she was last in Hungary at the age of 16. Why she is estranged we do not know but all is revealed as Beth reads the book and remembers and re-lives her 7 summers in Hungary.
This novel is very atmospheric, very evocative. We see the contrast between cool, damp, green Devon and hot sun-bleached Hungary. We also see the contrast between Beth's reserved, conventional father and her colourful, vivacious, flamboyant mother. There is a stark contrast between Beth's day to day life in Devon and her summers in Hungary. Her father is loving, but undemonstrative and communications between them are virtually non-existent. Beth feels that she is only truly alive when she is in Hungary.
This is also a novel about family secrets and how devastating the consequences can be, when the secret eventually comes to light. The longer the secret is kept, the more tragic those consequences will be.
I enjoyed this book very much. It is well-written and the characters are all vividly portrayed. As I have already said, it is very evocative and we are given a very rich portrayal of life in Hungary. The mystery of why Beth is estranged from her mother keeps us reading to the end. This is Emylia Hall's first novel and I shall certainly be looking out for further novels written by her. Altogether a very enjoyable read, which I am happy to recommend.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
All week I've been carrying The Book of Summers with me, and opening it whenever I could so that I could be transported into another world.
First there was London, where thirty-year old Beth worked in an art gallery and lived a quiet life. The details of her world, her life, her situation were so well drawn that I was pulled in straight away.
Beth's equilibrium was disturbed by a visit from her father. They had been close when she was a child and he was bringing her up alone, she remembered that well, and yet they had drifted apart and their relationship had become strangely formal.
He brought a package that had arrived for his daughter. A package from Hungary, where for seven summers Beth had visited the mother who had left when she was still an infant.
Beth didn't want to open the package; she and her mother had been estranged since her last visit, when she was sixteen years-old; she didn't want to revisit the past. But she had to, she had to know what was in the package, why it had been sent.
And so it was that Beth opened The Book of Summers, the record that her mother had kept of those seven visits.
She sat in Victoria Park with the book, and as she read she relived those seven summers. And I relived them with her, completely transported to other times and places.
I saw cool, damp Devon and warm, dry Hungary. I saw an old-fashioned, undemonstrative father and a warm, outgoing mother. I saw a quite day to day routine in Devon, and holiday fun in Hungary. And I saw Beth begin to grow up; a coming of age, very nearly.
It's a slow story, a little short on plot but long on lovely descriptions, well drawn characters, real emotions, and intriguing details, that bring the child and her world to life quite beautifully.
The child's perspective is held perfectly, but there was also space that allowed me to see how she had been affected by her family circumstances and things changed from one visit to the next.
I was completely caught up in Beth's life, I was always aware that something must go wrong, that something must have happened for there to have been such a long estrangement.
Something did go wrong, and I understood Beth's reaction and her behaviour completely. I wasn't quite as convinced about how her family had dealt with certain things in the past, but in the end I decided that though it was unlikely it was possible.
People sometimes do some very foolish things.
And then I was swept away, to an ending that was bittersweet and exactly right.
This is a lovely debut novel, and it would suit leisurely reading on a warm summer day very, very well ...
First there was London, where thirty-year old Beth worked in an art gallery and lived a quiet life. The details of her world, her life, her situation were so well drawn that I was pulled in straight away.
Beth's equilibrium was disturbed by a visit from her father. They had been close when she was a child and he was bringing her up alone, she remembered that well, and yet they had drifted apart and their relationship had become strangely formal.
He brought a package that had arrived for his daughter. A package from Hungary, where for seven summers Beth had visited the mother who had left when she was still an infant.
Beth didn't want to open the package; she and her mother had been estranged since her last visit, when she was sixteen years-old; she didn't want to revisit the past. But she had to, she had to know what was in the package, why it had been sent.
And so it was that Beth opened The Book of Summers, the record that her mother had kept of those seven visits.
She sat in Victoria Park with the book, and as she read she relived those seven summers. And I relived them with her, completely transported to other times and places.
I saw cool, damp Devon and warm, dry Hungary. I saw an old-fashioned, undemonstrative father and a warm, outgoing mother. I saw a quite day to day routine in Devon, and holiday fun in Hungary. And I saw Beth begin to grow up; a coming of age, very nearly.
It's a slow story, a little short on plot but long on lovely descriptions, well drawn characters, real emotions, and intriguing details, that bring the child and her world to life quite beautifully.
The child's perspective is held perfectly, but there was also space that allowed me to see how she had been affected by her family circumstances and things changed from one visit to the next.
I was completely caught up in Beth's life, I was always aware that something must go wrong, that something must have happened for there to have been such a long estrangement.
Something did go wrong, and I understood Beth's reaction and her behaviour completely. I wasn't quite as convinced about how her family had dealt with certain things in the past, but in the end I decided that though it was unlikely it was possible.
People sometimes do some very foolish things.
And then I was swept away, to an ending that was bittersweet and exactly right.
This is a lovely debut novel, and it would suit leisurely reading on a warm summer day very, very well ...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Living for the summers
Emylia Hall's tale ,of a young girl as she 'summers' in Hungary with her mother every year after her parents break up, rang a lot of bells with me. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Elka
Fabulous debut novel
A fantastic, beautifully descriptive & emotive debut novel from Emylia Hall. I couldn't put the book down & found the conclusion riveting. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Whizzo78
Works as a childhood memoir, not as a novel
The author in her foreword talks about her own perfect summers spent in Hungary as a child, and this sense of nostalgia is captured beautifully. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Roman Clodia
Just didn't grab me
I have to say that I struggled through the first forty or so pages - the writing style and plot seemed to me to be unnecessarily over-blown. I stuck with it though. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Marand
unexpected ending
Poor Beth abandoned by her mother who returned to Hunguary, and left her with her quiet father in Devon. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Mrs. T. SALMON
A Promising Debut
There is much that I can find to like about this book. I love the way it is structured, with photographs prompting memories of childhood and adolescence, punctuated by present day... Read more
Published 26 days ago by Lilysslave
The first of many, I hope
Childhood memories are always special. Some clear, some vivid, but remembered mainly fondly. The arrival of a scrapback and the news of her estranged Mother's death, finds Beth... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Wendywoo
Beautiful, evocative; a dream of a debut
I approached this novel from a somewhat unique perspective; like the central protagonist, Beth, my mother left me at a young, impressionable age. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Fastest reader in the West (of Scotland)
The Past is a Foreign Country
I seem to have had a few Proustian moments with this novel as different smells and sounds brought me back to my youth just as the protagonist explores her past via her own book,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lovely Treez
A perfect retreat of a story
I loved this book. The fact it's a first novel is most impressive. Drawing partly on her childhood and greatly on her wild and rich imagination, Emylia Hall has constructed the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by MsCrow
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