The Girls of Summer, Katie Bishop
The Girls of Summer, Katie Bishop
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The Girls of Summer
A Novel

Author: Katie Bishop

Narrator: Annabel Scholey

Unabridged: 10 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/06/2023


Synopsis

"That place has been my whole life. Everything I thought I knew about myself was constructed in those few months I spent within touching distance of the sea. Everything I am is because Alistair loved me."

Rachel has been in love with Alistair for fifteen years. Even though she’s now married to someone else. Even though she was a teenager when they met. Even though he is twenty years older than her.

Rachel and Alistair’s summer love affair on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island has consumed her since she was seventeen, obliterating everything in its wake. But as Rachel becomes increasingly obsessed with reliving the events of so long ago, she reconnects with the other girls who were similarly drawn to life on the island, where the nights were long, the alcohol was free-flowing and everyone acted in ways they never would at home. And as she does so, dark and deeply suppressed secrets about her first love affair begin to rise to the surface, as well as the truth about her time working for an enigmatic and wealthy man, who controlled so much more than she could have ever realized.

Joining a post #MeToo discourse, The Girls of Summer grapples with themes of power, sex, and consent, as it explores the complicated nature of memory and trauma––and what it takes to reframe, and reclaim, your own story.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press.

About Katie Bishop

KATIE BISHOP is the author of The Girls of Summer. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue, The Independent, and other publications. She lives in Birmingham, U.K. with her partner.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Catherine on June 12, 2023

**Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Katie Bishop for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 6.6!!** Although the title of this book might get you humming Don Henley's The Boys of Summer and itching for a poolside cocktail...the contents of this slow burn and heavily atmospheric #MeT......more

Goodreads review by Ceecee on October 13, 2022

3.5 rounded up The summer that Rachel spends on a Greek island at the age of seventeen casts a shadow over her life as the love she feels for Alistair utterly consumes her. Sixteen years later and now married to Tom, the couple holiday on the same Greek island. A chance meeting with one of the other......more

Goodreads review by Jasmine on May 18, 2023

DNF @ 50% I had a tepid interest in this story until about the 50% mark. The writing was pretty good, but I wasn’t a fan of Rachel, the main character. In the past chapters, she’s a bit selfish and naïve, which is fine considering her age. But in the present timeline, she is plainly unlikeable. I cou......more

Goodreads review by CYIReadBooks on April 25, 2023

Rachel and her best friend Caroline are off for a summer vacation in Greece. Both girls are in their junior and senior years of high school. Not even eighteen, but they decided to go on a trip of lifetime exploring the Greek archipelago, To save money, they stayed in hostels, sharing rooms with othe......more

Goodreads review by Maren’s Reads on May 27, 2023

3.5⭐️ Years following their summer love affair in Greece, Rachel, who’s now married to Tom, is still consumed with thoughts of Alister and the intensity of their relationship. Determined to revisit the past, Rachel reconnects with the women who spent that fateful summer with her. Soon, long buried s......more


Quotes

"Atmospheric and powerful, The Girls of Summer is a propulsive examination of the line blurring trauma and love in a relationship, a distinction which—in a post #MeToo world—is more important than ever. Bishop has crafted a haunting, tense, psychological debut, and a final reckoning that will stick with me." —Carola Lovering, author of Tell Me Lies