Description

From the Costa-shortlisted, beloved author of All My Mothers, Joanna Glen Is it ever too late to figure out who you were meant to be? As children, Hester and Elias were inseparable. Every year, their families would spend the summer together at their beach huts on a wild and windswept sandbank, where the two of them never left each other’s side. But childhood friendships can stretch and warp as you grow up, and in the summer of 1976, the year they turned 14, Hester did a terrible thing that would shatter both of their lives.

For her 60th birthday, Hester goes back to her family’s beach hut to hide from the husband she wants to leave and the daughters she’s never fully understood. It is here that she finally faces up to what she did that fateful summer, wondering whether it’s ever too late to become the person you were meant to be. And if there’s still a chance of finding Elias again…

From the Costa-shortlisted author of The Other Half of Augusta Hope, All My Mothers and Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly, this is a raw and sweeping novel about the power of a dark secret, the resilience of love and the possibility of redemption.

Hardback
Publication: 18 Jun 2026, HarperCollins 
ISBN: 9780008607463

Extent: 480 pages

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The First Act of Summer by Joanna Glen

    From the Costa-shortlisted, beloved author of All My Mothers, Joanna Glen Is it ever too late to figure out who... Read more

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      Description

      From the Costa-shortlisted, beloved author of All My Mothers, Joanna Glen Is it ever too late to figure out who you were meant to be? As children, Hester and Elias were inseparable. Every year, their families would spend the summer together at their beach huts on a wild and windswept sandbank, where the two of them never left each other’s side. But childhood friendships can stretch and warp as you grow up, and in the summer of 1976, the year they turned 14, Hester did a terrible thing that would shatter both of their lives.

      For her 60th birthday, Hester goes back to her family’s beach hut to hide from the husband she wants to leave and the daughters she’s never fully understood. It is here that she finally faces up to what she did that fateful summer, wondering whether it’s ever too late to become the person you were meant to be. And if there’s still a chance of finding Elias again…

      From the Costa-shortlisted author of The Other Half of Augusta Hope, All My Mothers and Maybe, Perhaps, Possibly, this is a raw and sweeping novel about the power of a dark secret, the resilience of love and the possibility of redemption.

      Hardback
      Publication: 18 Jun 2026, HarperCollins 
      ISBN: 9780008607463

      Extent: 480 pages

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