I hate to poo-poo on a novel that seems to be universally adored, especially a debut and by a Canadian to boot. When Charlie calls Percy to tell her that their mother has died, Percy does the only thing she can do: she returns to Barry’s Bay, even though it means that she must see Sam again. This is the beginning of Carley Fortune’s novel Every Summer After, which begins seventeen years after that first summer meeting, and then unspools with a series of flashbacks depicting Percy and Sam’s friendship over the course of six summers, and culminates in something so horrible that they haven’t spoken in twelve years. a wavy tangle of hair falling haphazardly over his eyes. Whereas the older boy was smiling wide, scrubbed clean and clearly knew his way around a bottle of styling gel, the younger one was staring at his feet. They were clearly related – both lanky and tanned – but their differences were just as plain. It took eight hours for the Florek boys to find me. Right next door live the Florek boys, 13-year-old, Sam, and his fifteen-year-old brother, Charlie. Instead of buying a cottage in Muskoka like many of their friends, Percy’s father chooses the less developed Barry’s Bay “a sleepy, working-class village that transformed into a bustling tourist town in the summer.” Barry’s Bay, her father tells Percy is “real cottage country.” Persephone “Percy” Fraser is thirteen when her parents decide they want a getaway from their busy lives as U of T professors.
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