Summerland - Elin Hilderbrand (2012)

It is high school graduation night on Nantucket Island and four teens are in a car crash. The driver, talented singer Penny, is killed; her twin brother, athletic star Hobby, is left in a coma; while Penny's boyfriend Jake and childhood friend Demeter are uninjured. The twins' free-spirited single mother Zoe is left to pick up the pieces. Meanwhile Jake's father, newspaper publisher Jordan, decides they need a break from the island and returns to his wife Ava's hometown of Perth in Australia. And Demeter is left with the guilt of her last conversation with Penny, and descends further into an alcoholic spiral. This story about the aftermath of a tragedy hooked me in straight away, and I was especially keen to see my hometown of Perth described through an American's eyes. Told from multiple points-of-view, the story focuses not only on the impact on family and friends when a life is cut short, but also what happens when secrets are revealed as the summer unfolds.

Elin Hilderbrand's Summerland is centred around a tragedy which rocks several families and the island community of Nantucket. The summary says: "A warm June evening, a local tradition: the students of Nantucket High have gathered for a bonfire on the beach. But what begins as a graduation night celebration ends in tragedy after a horrible car crash leaves the driver of the car, Penny Alistair, dead, and her twin brother in a coma. The other passengers, Penny's boyfriend Jake and her friend Demeter, are physically unhurt - but the emotional damage is overwhelming, and questions linger about what happened before Penny took the wheel. As summer unfolds, startling truths are revealed about the survivors and their parents - secrets kept, promises broken, hearts betrayed." Summerland is out in June.

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