Now, as summer starts, is the perfect time to dive into one of these books. Don’t delay. It might feel now as though it’s going to last forever but, as Shakespeare reminds us, “summer’s lease hath all too short a date”.
Five all-time summer classics
The Go-Between by LP Hartley
In this mid-century British classic, the narrator remembers the hot, golden childhood summer, spent at his schoolmate’s family estate, when he helped facilitate an illicit romance.
The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
Two teenaged sisters of an English family holidaying in France fall in with a charming Englishman who is especially interested in the older of the pair.
The Owl Service by Alan Garner
An ancient myth threatens to repeat itself as cultures clash and adolescent tensions reach boiling point in a secluded Welsh valley.
The Magus by John Fowles
An arrogant English teacher working on a Greek island is caught up in an elaborate, theatrical game – or is it a psychological experiment?
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead
“There was summer, and then there was the rest of the time.” It’s 1985, and awkward, 15-year-old Benji is on vacation in the Hamptons, and intent on reinventing himself.
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