The Summer Wives

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Williams, Beatriz, Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Williams, Beatriz
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Williams, Beatriz	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Williams, Beatriz	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Williams, Beatriz	4-week checkout	Due 05-24-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Williams, Beatriz	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Williams, Beatriz	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Williams, Beatriz	4-week checkout	Due 05-15-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Williams, Beatriz	4-week checkout	Due 05-07-2024

New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams brings us the blockbuster novel of the season--an electrifying postwar fable of love, class, power, and redemption set among the inhabitants of an island off the New England coast...In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society, still reeling from the loss of her father in the Second World War. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop overlooks the famous lighthouse, Miranda's catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails, status and swimming pools. Isobel Fisher, Miranda's new stepsister--all long legs and world-weary bravado, engaged to a wealthy Island scion--is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. But beneath the island's patrician surface, there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers who earn their living on the water and in the laundries of the summer houses. Uneasy among Isobel's privileged friends, Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father keeps the lighthouse with his mysterious wife. In summer, Joseph helps his father in the lobster boats, but in the autumn he returns to Brown University, where he's determined to make something of himself. Since childhood, Joseph's enjoyed an intense, complex friendship with Isobel Fisher, and as the summer winds to its end, Miranda's caught in a catastrophe that will shatter Winthrop's hard-won tranquility and banish Miranda from the island for nearly two decades.Now, in the landmark summer of 1969, Miranda returns at last, as a renowned Shakespearean actress hiding a terrible heartbreak. On its surface, the Island remains the same--determined to keep the outside world from its shores, fiercely loyal to those who belong. But the formerly powerful Fisher family is a shadow of itself, and Joseph Vargas has recently escaped the prison where he was incarcerated for the murder of Miranda's stepfather eighteen years earlier. What's more, Miranda herself is no longer a naïve teenager, and she begins a fierce, inexorable quest for justice for the man she once loved . . . even if it means uncovering every last one of the secrets that bind together the families of Winthrop Island.--from book jacket.
Summer, 1951. Miranda Schuyler's mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house on Winthrop Island overlooks the famous lighthouse. Isobel Fisher, Miranda's new stepsister, is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father keeps the lighthouse. Joseph works summers in the lobster boats, attends Brown University, and enjoys an intense friendship with Isobel. Summer, 1969. The Island remains the same-- on the surface. Joseph Vargas has recently escaped the prison where he was incarcerated for the murder of Miranda's stepfather eighteen years earlier. Miranda returns, a renowned Shakespearean actress, determined to find justice for the man she once loved.-- adapted from jacket

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Entertaining, but common theme emerging. submitted by jgetty on June 23, 2021, 10:01am I've read several of Beatriz Williams' books this summer. I was enthusiastic at first, since they follow several families over multiple books, rotating chapters by years and characters. The books are entertaining, but I am noticing a common theme that I'm getting tired of: lots of promiscuity, unfaithfulness, demoralized self-destructive characters, and, really, the characters have very shallow lives. I've read 3 of her books now, and think I'll move on to something else. (UPDATE ALERT: I did go on to read Beatriz Williams again: By the Infinite Sea, and loved it! The same characters are weaved into all of her books with all kinds of complicated interesting plots. I think this particular book Summer Wives was a bit too much, but I decided I will continue reading Beatriz Williams books).