by Tish Cohen
12. “Partnership and a good marriage, two or three kids—these goals might seem amatuerish and ‘picket fence’ lined up next to his wife’s but there you have it. . . . It’s not too much to hope for,” Matt thinks on pages 138–139. Elise later thinks to herself, “The man’s dreams were so attainable it was painful . . . With anyone else but Elise, wouldn’t he have that by now?” It can be difficult to maintain a relationship with someone who has drastically different goals in life—do you think Elise and Matt were mismatched from the start, or do you think it’s these differing goals that attracted them to each other?
13. After spending his whole life deeply admiring his grandfather, Matt gets a wake-up call that Nate was not the generous and selfless person he long believed, but rather a “calculating man, a patriarch who used his power to prey upon people on the edge of financial desperation.” How does Matt grow from the shock of this realization? What positive things do you think Matt learned from Nate? How might he apply these to his relationship with Elise and Gracie?
14. Consider Elise’s father’s statement: “When a person reaches that low point . . . all they have in front of them is their own pain. You can’t judge them on anything else.” How could Matt and Elise both apply this observation to their relationship?
15. Discuss the ending of the novel. Where do you think Elise and Matt will go from here? Do you think their relationship is salvageable? What advice would you give them moving forward?
– ENHANCE YOUR BOOK CLUB –
1. Lake Placid Lodge, Mirror Lake, Whiteface Lodge, the Olympic Center, the North Elba Showgrounds—many of the beautiful and scenic Lake Placid locales the novel mentions exist in real life. Research the town of Lake Placid and plan an imaginary—or real!—trip with your book club.
2. Dressage, Elise’s sport, is often considered “ballet on horseback.” Research dressage—the United States Dressage Federation website is a great place to start—and watch dressage videos on YouTube (you can even watch videos from the actual 2016 Rio Olympics!) to get an idea of the type of routines Elise performs in her competitions.
3. Listen to the Joni Mitchell song from which Gracie gets her nickname—“Little Green.” The album it appears on, Blue, is largely considered to be Mitchell’s most emotional and beloved work and is revered for its deeply candid and poignant perspective on love and relationships. Consider listening to the album in its entirety. Can you draw any other parallels to Matt and Elise’s relationship and the novel as a whole?
4. Learn more about Tish Cohen by visiting her website (TishCohen.com) and Twitter (@TishCohen). Consider reading her previous novels with your book club. Compare her other works of fiction with The Summer We Lost Her.
– ABOUT THE AUTHOR –
LILIANA REYES
TISH COHEN is the author of bestselling novels for adults and young readers, many of them in development for film. Her first novel, Town House, was a regional finalist for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. Cohen’s short film, Russet Season, had its US premiere at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival in 2017. She lives in Toronto.
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR:
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Tish-Cohen
SimonandSchuster.com
Facebook.com/GalleryBooks
@GalleryBooks
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Gallery Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Tish Cohen
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Gallery Books trade paperback edition June 2019
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Interior design by Jaime Putorti
Cover design by Laywan Kwan
Cover photograph by plainpicture/Hammerbacher
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cohen, Tish, 1963– author.
Title: The summer we lost her : a novel / Tish Cohen.
Description: First Gallery Books trade paperback edition. | New York : Gallery Books Books, 2019. | “Gallery Books ORIGINAL FICTION Hard.”
Identifiers: LCCN 2018019640 (print) | LCCN 2018023317 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501199707 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501199684 (trade paperback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Dysfunctional families—Fiction. | Family secrets—Fiction. | Family problems—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PR9199.4.C644 (ebook) | LCC PR9199.4.C644 L58 2019 (print) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018019640
ISBN 978-1-5011-9968-4
ISBN 978-1-5011-9970-7 (ebook)