Our Last Vineyard Summer - by Brooke Lea Foster

Book Synopsis

From the "great storyteller" (Natalie Jenner, author of The Jane Austen Society) Brooke Lea Foster, comes a captivating historical fiction novel set in 1965 and 1978 about a graduate student who returns with her sisters to their family's summer estate on Martha's Vineyard and begins to unravel old family secrets.

After suffering through her first year of graduate school at Columbia following her senator father's death, Betsy Whiting is hoping to spend the summer with her boyfriend...and hopefully end the summer as his fiancée. Instead, her mother--a longtime feminist and leader in the women's rights movement--calls Betsy and her sisters back home to Martha's Vineyard, announcing that they need to sell their beloved summer house to pay off their father's debts.

When Betsy arrives on the island a week later, she must reckon with her strained familial relationships, a long-ago forbidden romance, and the complicated legacy of her parents, who divided the family even as they did good for the world.

Following a dual timeline between 1965 and 1978, and filled with the vibrant, sunlit nostalgia of the cherished New England vacation setting, Our Last Vineyard Summer poignantly captures two generations of women navigating grief, sisterhood, and female friendship while trying to find the courage to stand up for what they believe in--and the strength to decide if the home they once loved is worth saving.

Review Quotes

"A heartfelt tribute to sisterhood and womankind, Our Last Vineyard Summer invites readers into a family home brimming with memories of summers by the sea. With a perfect blend of secrets, misdeeds, and unexpected love, Brooke Lea Foster has crafted a gripping, timely story that will captivate readers from start to finish." --Amy Poeppel, author of The Sweet Spot

"A quiet powerhouse of a novel--deeply atmospheric, emotionally resonant and steeped in the history and heartbreak of generational womanhood." --Woman's World

"A radiant, sun-flushed summer novel packed with beaches, secrets, and sisters. Foster has imbued this brilliant, feminist beach read with skill and heart and optimism. This is historical fiction at its very best, as relevant as this morning's news, as enjoyable as a summer day at the beach." --Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author

"Appealing...the expert plotting is matched by pitch-perfect character work. Foster's fans will adore this." --Publishers Weekly

"Both a generational mystery and a feminist coming of age, Our Last Vineyard Summer is an engrossing and poignant look at family in all its complicated depth. It had me gripped from the first page." --Annabel Monaghan, USA Today bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script

"Both timely and timeless--a compelling, thoughtful novel that explores complex family relationships and the changing roles of women over time. This is a book you will want to pass to your mother, daughter, sister, and best friend and say, Read this!" --Julie Gerstenblatt, author of Daughters on Nantucket

"Brooke Lea Foster's Our Last Vineyard Summer has all my favorite book ingredients--intriguing mother-daughter dynamics, a vivid Martha's Vineyard setting, a gripping dual timeline and, best of all, a family secret bombshell that I never saw coming." --Martha Hall Kelly, New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls

"Evocative and rich, Our Last Vineyard Summer captures the enduring and complicated love between mothers and daughters in this fascinating tale of one family's memorable summers at the beach. Foster depicts two generations of women who are stubborn and smart, vulnerable and competitive, but she does so with compassion and wit that makes you cheer them on until the end." --Jo Piazza, internationally bestselling author of The Sicilian Inheritance

About the Author

Brooke Lea Foster is an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe Magazine, and People, among others. An alumna of The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, she is the author of three nonfiction books and the novels Summer Darlings, On Gin Lane, All the Summers In Between, and Our Last Vineyard Summer.