The Summer I Dared

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What comes after the moment that changes your life forever? This is the question that haunts Julia Bechtel, Noah Prine, and Kim Collela, the only survivors of a horrific boating accident off the coast of Maine. Julia, a forty-year-old wife and mother, has always done exactly what other expect of her. Pigeonholed by her controlling family and distant husband as 'loyal' and 'obedient', she realises in the aftermath of her brush with death that there is more to her - and to the world - than she ever imagined. Feeling strangely connected to Noah, the divorced, taciturn lobsterman who helped save her life, and Kim, a twenty-one-year old whose role in the accident - and subsequent muteness - are a mystery, Julia begins to explore the unique possibilities offered by the quiet island of Big Sawyer. With each passing moment, each new discovery, she grows every more sure that after coming face to face with death, she must have more from life. Set in a beautifully rendered Maine, where lobstermen leave with the tides each morning to hoist their traps and neighbours gather each night to feat on the catch of the day, THE SUMMER I DARED is a deeply moving story of the risky but rewarding search for self. Barbara Delinsky's latest work is ultimately a story of survival, of the irrepressible ability of the human spirit to rebound from disaster and make life anew.