Pg. 69: Jacquelyn Mitchard's "Still Summer"

The current feature at the Page 69 Test: Jacquelyn Mitchard's Still Summer.

About the book, from the author's website:

When four friends who ruled the school twenty years ago gather for an idyllic sailing vacation – meant to comfort Olivia, who has returned home a widow after twenty years abroad – they expect two weeks of gossip, sunbathing and drinks with little umbrellas.

Instead, two days into their crossing, a single small mistake turns paradise a sun-baked hell.

The same elements that combined to make this trip an adventure in paradise combine in for survival. Surrounded by water, but with almost none to drink, with refrigerators filled with gourmet food rotting before they can used it, and a deluxe communication system ruined in an instant, the women must hide from the punishing sun and use all their strength and intelligence to try to outwit nature, their own demons and human predators.

What happens when friendship must face the ultimate test? Does the better nature prevail or is it everyone for herself?

Among the early praise for Still Summer:

"Still Summer is a finely written tale you will not be able to put down, but it is also an insightful and moving exploration of the nature of enduring friendship between women. What happens when these ties are put to the most severe test? What happens when fate sets us adrift in lethal waters under a merciless sun? With her characteristic generosity, intelligence, and warmth, Jacquelyn Mitchard illuminates this central question in an utterly compelling novel you will not soon forget!"
—Andre Dubus III

"Jacquelyn Mitchard is a master at laying bare the souls of her characters, and in Still Summer, she gives us four unforgettable women who must fight to survive. Slowly and expertly, Mitchard ratchets up the tension in this pulse-pounding tale of courage, betrayal, and high-seas terror."
—Tess Gerritsen, author of The Mephisto Club

Read an excerpt from Still Summer and visit Mitchard's website, her blog, and the Still Summer MySpace page.

Jacquelyn Mitchard's novels include The Most Wanted, A Theory of Relativity, Twelve Times Blessed, The Breakdown Lane, Cage of Stars, and The Deep End of the Ocean, the first novel selected for the book club made famous by the TV host Oprah Winfrey.

The Page 69 Test: Still Summer.

--Marshal Zeringue