The perfect summer read from a glorious new voice in commercial literary fiction

Beth Lowe has been sent a parcel.

Inside is a letter informing her that her long-estranged mother has died, and a scrapbook Beth has never seen before. Entitled The Book of Summers, it's stuffed with photographs and mementos complied by her mother to record the seven glorious childhood summers Beth spent in rural Hungary.
It was a time when she trod the tightrope between separated parents and two very different countries; her bewitching but imperfect Hungarian mother and her gentle, reticent English father; the dazzling house of a Hungarian artist and an empty-feeling cottage in deepest Devon. And it was a time that came to the most brutal of ends the year Beth turned sixteen.

Since then, Beth hasn't allowed herself to think about those years of her childhood. But the arrival of The Book of Summers brings the past tumbling back into the present; as vivid, painful and vital as ever.

"'A charming debut novel'" - Woman's Own

"'A vivid coming-of-age story'" - Woman & Home

"'A compelling coming-of-age story with a superb twist'" - Easy Living

"'Emylia Hall creates an enchanting and vivid picture of Beth's summers in rural Hungary... It's an addictive read and an amazing debut for Emylia Hall'" - www.cosmopolitan.co.uk

"'Fab debut about a woman reliving the summers she spent in rural Hungary'" - Heat

"'Heartfelt and evocative... all we need now is for summer to finally arrive'" - Grazia

"'Fantastically evocative and sun-drenched with a twist, it's guaranteed a place on our summer holiday reading list'" - www.stylist.co.uk

"'Enchantingly evocative'" - Marie Claire