What Dies in Summer

by Tom Wright

Overview

“A beautifully written and deeply engaging study of loss and innocence, suffused with chilling dread. A haunting novel, a captivating debut; I loved it.”—S. J. Watson, author of Before I Go to Sleep

“I did what I did, and that’s on me.” From that tantalizing first sentence, Tom Wright sweeps us up in a tale of lost innocence. Jim has a touch of the Sight. It’s nothing too spooky and generally useless, at least until the summer his cousin L.A. moves in with him and their grandmother. When Jim and L.A. discover the body of a girl, brutally raped and murdered in a field, an investigation begins that will put both their lives in danger. In the spirit of The Lovely Bones and The Little Friend, What Dies in Summer is a novel that casts its spell on the very first page and leaves an indelible mark.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393084276
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/28/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	846 KB

About the Author

Tom Wright is a practicing psychologist and received his doctorate from Texas A&M University. This is his first book. He lives in Texarkana, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

A fatherless boy who has “a touch of the Sight” teams up with his only cousin to find a killer in Wright’s seductively suspenseful coming-of-age novel. Teenager James Beaudry lives in Texas with his sage Gram, who has raised him with a stern hand and warm heart. All is bucolic until cousin Lee Ann (“L.A.”) arrives, shaken by some domestic trauma. Just as L.A. warms to life at Gram’s, James has a vision of a dead girl, a vision eerily confirmed when he and L.A. discover the brutalized body of a local girl. Soon James and L.A. discover that someone has been snooping in their house, and that the dead girl they found was just one of a string of murders. Their sleuthing is aided by James’s continued visions of dead girls who impart a cryptic message that could place L.A. in harm’s way. Wright, a practicing psychologist, expertly weaves together a literary tapestry of self-discovery, brutal sadistic violence, custodial battles, and tender, burgeoning sexuality, leaving readers spellbound by a story that delivers on several levels. The author’s impressive, multitiered storytelling talents are on brilliant display in this entrancing, impressive debut. Agent: Victoria Hobbs, A.M. Heath, U.K. (June)

Publishers Weekly

...this accomplished... novel is... a mix of the fey, the fairy tale... and the unspeakably grim.

Julie Meyerson - New York Times Book Review

Elegantly written… an unsettling novel about the loss of innocence.

The Times (UK)

Practically flawless.

The Sunday Times (UK)

A coming-of-age drama with shades of Stand By Me… a moving exploration of the vulnerability of youth, and of tangled family relationships.”

The Guardian (UK)

[What Dies in Summer] builds upon the framework of the conventional modern thriller to fashion something that is much, much more… Beautifully written… this raw, powerful story, with its undertow of dread, heralds the arrival of a major new writer.”

The Daily Mail (UK)

Starred review. ...Even with its hints of southern gothic and mysticism, this coming-of-age novel keeps its solidly quotidian background. An unusually accomplished and evocative debut, in which what dies is innocence.

Booklist

You will find fascinating and powerful women in these pages, demanding female relatives as well as local eccentrics. Biscuit, as our likable narrator is called, has a heck/hell of a year navigating family cruelty, neighborhood murders, his own sexual desire, and even a bear attack, but he always listens thoughtfully to those who would advise him. By the end of the story, life no longer offers Biscuit (or anyone) safety, but Wright shows beautifully how a boy can learn to become a good and capable man.

Bonnie Jo Campbell

An erotic, compelling and deeply assured debut, midway between Ellroy and Faulkner. It evokes so precisely the beauty and sadness of first love and lost innocence.

Sam Taylor

A magnificent novel, not so much about loss of innocence as innocence put through the masher. The story pulsates with a deep dread that would be unbearable if the novel weren't so sweet, funny, sexy and ultimately moving.

Nick Cave

A compulsive and provocative novel, Tom Wright manages to combine familiar themes of youth—fear, desire, vulnerability and chaos – with a story that both unsettles and intrigues the reader. A narrative voice that’s raw and desperate, a story that grips from start to finish, What Dies In Summer is hugely impressive.”

John Boyne

A beautifully written and deeply engaging study of loss and innocence, suffused with chilling dread. A haunting novel, a captivating debut; I loved it.

S.J. Watson

What Dies in Summer is a harrowing tale of loss, love, death, and unspeakable secrets. And Tom Wright, he can flat-out tell a story. He writes with intelligence, grace, and mettle. He sees what most of us are unable to see and says what we are unwilling to say. What skill, what courage, what a splendid and terrifying debut novel.”

John Dufresne

...this accomplished... novel is... a mix of the fey, the fairy tale... and the unspeakably grim.— Julie Meyerson

New York Times Book Review