The Summer Country - Paperback

by Lauren Willig (Author)

"Tense, atmospheric, and gorgeously written, The Summer Country is a novel to savor!" - Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network

A brilliant, multigenerational saga in the tradition of The Thorn Birds and North and South, New York Times bestselling historical novelist Lauren Willig delivers her biggest, boldest, and most ambitious novel yet--a sweeping Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial Barbados.

Barbados, 1854: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan-- merely a vicar's daughter, and a reform-minded vicar's daughter, at that. Everyone knows that the family's lucrative shipping business will go to her cousin, Adam, one day. But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados--a plantation her grandfather never told anyone he owned.

When Emily accompanies her cousin and his new wife to Barbados, she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, reduced to ruins in 1816, when a rising of enslaved people sent the island up in flames. Rumors swirl around the derelict plantation; people whisper of ghosts.

Why would her practical-minded grandfather leave her a property in ruins? Why are the neighboring plantation owners, the Davenants, so eager to acquire Peverills? The answer lies in the past-- a tangled history of lies, greed, clandestine love, heartbreaking betrayal, and a bold bid for freedom.

THE SUMMER COUNTRY will beguile readers with its rendering of families, heartbreak, and the endurance of hope against all odds.

Front Jacket

A sweeping Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial Barbados

Barbados, 1954: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan. Everyone knows that the family's shipping business will go to her cousin. But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados.

When Emily travels to Barbados, she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, reduced to ruins in 1816. Why would her grandfather leave her a property in ruins? Why are the neighboring plantation owners, so eager to acquire Peverills?

A brilliant, multigenerational saga that begins in the years of slavery and ends in a time of industry and new beginnings, The Summer Country boldly unravels the legacy of two families, and the secret ties that bind them.--Stephanie Dray, New York Times bestselling author of My Dear Hamilton

Back Jacket

A sweeping Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial Barbados

Barbados, 1954: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan. Everyone knows that the family's shipping business will go to her cousin. But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados.

When Emily travels to Barbados, she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, reduced to ruins in 1816. Why would her grandfather leave her a property in ruins? Why are the neighboring plantation owners, so eager to acquire Peverills?

A brilliant, multigenerational saga that begins in the years of slavery and ends in a time of industry and new beginnings, The Summer Country boldly unravels the legacy of two families, and the secret ties that bind them.