Q: Please tell us about the central relationship in Summer Light.
A: Summer Light is primarily a love story between two people who thought they would never love again. Both are very distracted by their lives and losses. And this is a book about two people who do not have a smooth path. But so few of us have smooth paths to travel in our own ways. May and Martin fall in love very fast—and that was critical to the story for me, that they know it’s right but then they have to untangle it. The reason I wanted it to be that way for these characters is to show that they couldn’t walk away, as tempting as this is for them; they are in it for the long run. I also wanted to express to the reader how very much I believe in sticking together through hard times and having faith that on the other side there is something better.
Q: What is so special about Summer Light —the concept, not the book itself. What does that phrase mean to you?
A: It is so evocative: Summer Light . I can close my eyes in the middle of December and I can picture it—that golden light at the end of the day, with the sun shining down, the pollen in the air, and the reflection of the water. In my books it is usually salt water, a marsh, a cove, a tidal pool. In the novel Summer Light it is the Long Island Sound and marshes, but it is also an imaginary lake in Canada that helps reflect that special light.
The town I live in, where I grew up, is Old Lyme, Connecticut, which is the birthplace of American Impressionism. I grew up with so many stories and legends and real tales about the American Impressionists and the reason they were drawn to Old Lyme was the quality of the light—it reminded them of a certain area in France that they loved and they painted. My mother was an artist so I have always appreciated the painterly aspects of light. I’ve tried to capture that on paper. I think it is also one way to bring the story alive to the reader: whether it is summer or winter, whatever the season, the story can become very clear to the reader if I let readers see the characters in a season, against certain light. Setting is so important: it is a living, breathing thing.
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