That Summer in Ischia

A young woman’s adventurous quest to find the truth about her mother’s past in Italy—a tale rich with romance, dark secrets, mature storytelling, and sharp wit

Liddy and Helena are students working as au pairs on the island of Ischia in the summer of 1979. They expect to spend the summer having fun on the beach and in their new, opulent surroundings, looking after the children of the Verduccis and the Baldinis. But they hadn’t counted on a kidnapped child, dangerous love affairs, and the carabinieri. Twenty-five years later Liddy, walking her dog on an English beach, spies a figure reminiscent of her estranged friend—it is Helena’s daughter, Allie. At the risk of opening an old wound, she befriends her. And so Allie is set upon a startling quest for identity, taking her across Europe to the family villa where it all went so wrong for her mother. Her curiosity and persistence forges surprising links with two families she'd only heard about from Liddy, as she seeks her father and discovers what really took place during that summer in Ischia.