One Italian Summer

by Rebecca Serle

Atria     2022

272 pages     Magical Realism

As I am writing this, I am looking out the window on the Gulf Cost in Alabama, but dreaming of the Amalfi coast, the setting for One Italian Summer. It was the perfect book to read on vacation, because I was able to spend a great deal of time thinking about my relationship to my mother, when I was a young woman.

Kate Silver and her mother, Carol, had made plans and purchased tickets to visit the beautiful village of Positano, Italy. Positano was Carol’s favorite place, and she really wanted to share the beauty with her daughter, but after several months of suffering, Carol died. As a way to assuage her grief, Kate decides to leave her husband Eric and take the trip by herself to try to understand who she is without her mother, who had been her rock. She muses: “I cannot yet conceive of a world without her, what that will look like, who I am in her absence.”

Once she arrives, Kate is overwhelmed by the beauty of Positano and begins to follow the plans that her mother has laid out. She feels a little guilty about leaving Eric, who has been another constant in her life, but one of the goals for her trip was to decide what their relationship will be going forward. The views, the restaurants, and the hiking paths immediately call to her, and she begins to find some peace. Shockingly, she meets a young woman named Carol, who is 30, and Kate is sure that this is her mother as a young woman. As the two women become fast friends, Kate’s confusion is palpable. How is this possible? To add to her stress and confusion, Kate meets a businessman named Adam, to whom she is immediately attracted. How is this going to play out?

The plot is somewhat predictable, once the reader understands that Serle specializes in magical realism. It did intrigue me enough to keep turning the pages, but I found that the real strength of the books lies in the character development. We learn so much about Kate through her narration; young Carol is also strong, and you can’t help but be as attracted to Adam as Kate is.

The most important aspect of the book for me was the strength of the bond between Kate and her mother. My relationship with my mother was quite different from Kate’s, but I have watched a similar relationship between my sister and her daughters. My daughter and I have a very strong relationship, but I work hard not to offer too much advice. The book certainly caused me a lot of thought and contemplation about familial relationships.

The other aspect that I appreciated was my introduction to limoncello, an Italian drink that Kate learns to appreciate. I bought a bottle to see how I would like it—and indeed I did. A little bit goes a long way! 

This is my first book by Rebecca Serle, but I very much liked her poetic word choices and the delightful way in which she introduces the reader to magical realism. I scratched my head several times trying to figure out how in the world Kate could have met her mother as a young woman. When the reason emerges, it was obvious—and wonderful.

I loved the final comment from the Publisher’s Weekly reviewer, “Once again, Serle gets the job done just fine.” And indeed, she did. One Italian Summer will be released next Tuesday.