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"Tallulah's childhood is a tumultuous one. Her mother is often absent as she puts her goals to save the world over her family. Her father's ignored bipolar disorder results in bouts of depression and manic behavior that often leave Tallulah afraid and confused. But with her older brother Grif to watch out for her and her grandmother to make sure she grows up into a proper Southern lady ... her life is stable enough: that is, until a terrible tragedy rocks her entire community. Forced to move away from everyone she knows and loves at the age of sixteen, Tallulah lives on her own for seven years before returning back to the Mississippi town where it all began"--
About the author
Susan Crandall is a critically acclaimed author of women’s fiction, romance, and suspense. She has written several award-winning novels including her first book, Back Roads, which won the RITA award for best first book, as well as Whistling Past the Graveyard, which won the SIBA 2014 Book Award for Fiction. Susan lives in Noblesville, Indiana, with her family.
Summary
From the national bestselling author of Whistling Past the Graveyard comes a moving coming-of-age tale set in the tumultuous sixties that harkens to both Ordinary Grace and The Secret Life of Bees.
Tallulah James’s parents’ volatile relationship, erratic behavior, and hands-off approach to child rearing set tongues to wagging in their staid Mississippi town, complicating her already uncertain life. She takes the responsibility of shielding her family’s reputation and raising her younger twin siblings onto her youthful shoulders.
If not for the emotional constants of her older brother, Griff, and her old guard Southern grandmother, she would be lost. When betrayal and death arrive hand in hand, she takes to the road, headed to what turns out to be the not-so-promised land of Southern California. The dysfunction of her childhood still echoes throughout her scattered family, sending her brother on a disastrous path and drawing her home again. There she uncovers the secrets and lies that set her family on the road to destruction.
Additional text
'Beautiful, stark and heartbreaking, The Myth of Perpetual Summer by Susan Crandall dares to examine the idea of what happens from one generation to another when family members keep secrets to themselves rather than sharing them with others, and the consequences are tragic in terms of effects on family members as they each begin to wrestle with their own fears and desires in realistic ways."
