The summer wives
Deceptive
Controversial
Emotional

The summer wives a novel

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.
Sign up to use

Reviews

Photo of Patricia Nelson
Patricia Nelson@tnelson577
4 stars
Aug 23, 2023
Photo of Jo M
Jo M@american_seoul
3.5 stars
Oct 20, 2022
This review contains a spoiler
Photo of Gisela Ayala
Gisela Ayala @giselasmusings
5 stars
Sep 7, 2022
Photo of Katharine Butler
Katharine Butler @kbutler
5 stars
Aug 12, 2022
Photo of Kimberly Diaz
Kimberly Diaz@kimberlyy
5 stars
Dec 15, 2021
Magnetic
Touching
Beautiful
Deceptive
Emotional
Controversial
Photo of Kayla
Kayla @kaylasbookishlife
5 stars
Dec 6, 2021
Photo of Elodia
Elodia@eloreads
3 stars
Oct 20, 2021
Photo of Jacklyn O’Brien
Jacklyn O’Brien @judge_a_book_by_this_blog
4 stars
Oct 13, 2021
Photo of Heather Margaret
Heather Margaret@heatherdarling
4 stars
Jun 9, 2024
Photo of Cindi Coan
Cindi Coan@cindichat
5 stars
Aug 5, 2023
Photo of Rosie Yakob
Rosie Yakob @rosieyakob
3 stars
Mar 1, 2023
Photo of R L
R L@ruthie313
2 stars
Jan 1, 2023
Photo of Kristen Gombas
Kristen Gombas@kristenmarie
4 stars
Sep 26, 2022
Photo of Tara Harder
Tara Harder@taradawn09
4 stars
Aug 29, 2022
Photo of Courtney Woolery
Courtney Woolery@courtneyskye
4 stars
May 22, 2022
Photo of Michele Bruwer
Michele Bruwer@micheletameris
4 stars
Mar 25, 2022
Photo of Jennifer Filer
Jennifer Filer@jennyf
4 stars
Mar 15, 2022
Photo of Katie Finkle Butler
Katie Finkle Butler@finklefish24
4 stars
Mar 9, 2022
Photo of Mary Rose Gibson
Mary Rose Gibson@mary_roseytoes
4 stars
Mar 6, 2022
Photo of Kelli Lynn
Kelli Lynn@kellilynn087
4 stars
Feb 26, 2022
Photo of Devon Morton
Devon Morton @dmorton
3 stars
Feb 24, 2022
Photo of Maggie Horikawa
Maggie Horikawa@maggiehorikawa
3 stars
Feb 16, 2022
Photo of Hannah
Hannah@hdupont415
5 stars
Feb 1, 2022
Photo of Renee K Hopper
Renee K Hopper@eenerreppoh
4 stars
Jan 10, 2022