The Book of Summers [Paperback]

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, The Book of Summers. Admittedly my own past was somewhat less eventful and less traumatic than that of Beth Lowe but I really enjoyed the atmosphere of nostalgia, the memories of summers past and, I think, despite the sadness, a certain optimism about the future all of which added up to an enjoyable read for me.

The "summers" of the title are the seven vacations which Beth spent with her mother, Marika, in Hungary. In the present-day narrative, thirty year old Beth is leading a very quiet, almost reclusive life, working in an art gallery in London, but the tranquillity is fractured when her father makes an impromptu visit bringing with him a parcel which, once opened, lets loose all the memories Beth has tried so hard to suppress. The Book of Summers is the scrapbook memoir which Marika had compiled over the seven summers Beth enjoyed with her in Hungary - memories of hot dry summers, bathing in ponds, first love, wandering in the wilds - all of which form a sharp contrast with home, a rather dreary Devon with a quite depressed Dad who can't really compete with the exotic wild whirlwind created by Marika.

Of course, such idyllic days were bound to be disrupted and you really feel for the young Beth/Erzi. Her only hope of closure as an adult is to relive those days via the Book of Summers.

"Once, when she was trying to explain why she'd returned to Hungary, Marika said, Sometimes if you don't go backward, you can't move forward."

This is an impressive, evocative debut which will transport the reader to another time, another place. I'm looking forward to reading more from this talented young writer.

This evocative and engaging story is first person narrated by Beth Lowe, 30, a single woman who works in an art gallery off Brick Lane. She enjoys her work and, on the surface, she appears happy enough, but right from the first few pages of this book we know that something has happened in Beth's life to make her seem rather reserved and a little emotionally distant.

One weekend Beth is visited by her schoolmaster father, a hesitant and rather remote man described by Beth as being older than most fathers, with glasses sliding down his nose, always in his study and lost in his books. From his Devon home he brings a large parcel sent from Hungary and addressed to: Erzsebet - Beth's Hungarian name - and a name, she says, that no longer exists: "...[Erzsebet] was a figment, a fading trace of breath on a pane...long lost, long gone". Inside the package Beth finds a large scrapbook full of mementos and photographs of her taken over a period of seven summers spent in Hungary with her mother, Marika, a passionate, free spirited woman who left Beth and her father when Beth was nine years old, and returned to her homeland of Hungary to live with an artist called Zoltan Karoly; a mother from whom Beth has been estranged since she was sixteen years old. But why, after visiting her mother in Hungary and spending seven wonderful, bohemian summers there, painting, swimming, picnicking and enjoying life with Marika and Zoltan in their beautiful old house, is Beth no longer in contact with her mother?

Emylia Hall's debut novel is a warm and charming coming of age story; it is also a story of intense longing and of the need to belong and it is about how, by not communicating with those who matter to us, we sometimes waste precious time that cannot be retrieved. Hall's writing is beautifully descriptive as she deftly contrasts the hot summers of Hungary, with its chalky hillsides full of rhododendrons and mustard-painted houses, against the cooler months spent in Devon with rugs, open fires and the smell of toast and wood smoke. As suggested by the book's presentation, this is not meant to be a great literary novel - but it is an evocative and satisfying read with a pleasantly gentle pace to it and, as such, would be ideal for holiday or bedtime reading. Having previously just finished a rather clever, literary novel with cold, unsympathetic characters, I found this book to be a wonderful contrast and a warm, entertaining and pleasurable read.

4 Stars.

This book was an absolute surprise for me. Taking place in both present and past times, spanning across countries, we follow Beth Lowe as she looks through a scrapbook sent from an old friend, and created by her estranged mother. This book, called The Book of Summers, unlocks everything from 6 years she spent in Hungary, and the time surrounding it. The Book of Summers doesn't only unlock those moments, they unlock a young Beth, and other feelings, and thoughts Beth thought she had left behind.

Emylia really cares about her characters: no matter what they've done you feel for them, you understand their reasons, you want them to be okay. This can be really difficult to achieve but Emylia makes it look easy. It's important for me to like the characters, to want to follow their story, and see them succeed, and this Emylia manages to do with all of them.

Another thing the author manages to do is make you really feel the places you are in. There are no lengthy, boring descriptions, but she describes them well, you can see those places, feel them, want to be there. I mean I was ready to get a plane ticket to Hungary because of her book, and you can tell her love for this place, having travelled to Hungary herself since the Berlin Wall came down.

This is a book about re-awakenings, about never being too late, and to never ignore your heart. I fell in love with this book, the people, and the places, and I will be reading this again!