This is a lovely story about a young woman named Lindy Jain. Precise and practical, her neatly organized world is suddenly shattered by the murder of her older sister, June. Lindy slowly loses her battle to cope with her grief. She is unable to grasp how her happy life must somehow make room for death. In desperation she flees. She leaves her job, her house, her fiancé and her devastated family. She takes the only thing of her sister’s still left on earth- June’s young son- a baby not even a year old.
Through the heat of a southern summer Lindy drives from Charlotte to Galveston, seeking refuge in the abandoned house of an ailing grandmother. There she creates a space for herself and the baby that is off the map and out of time- a non-existence in which grief can be held at bay. Through the hot months of July and August Lindy lives on borrowed time, a ghost of herself, until a new found romance brings her back into the world. It is the wise love of a younger man that helps Lindy become solid again. Step by careful step she rebuilds the severed connections to her former life, love and sorrow triumphing over despair.
Ashley Warlick’s ability to sink her readers into the depths of her characters is outstanding. She can evoke the pull of family or the importance of childhood playgrounds in a few short well-crafted sentences. Her talent and craftsmanship earned her awards for her first novel, The Distance from the Heart of Things. The Summer After June is equally well done- a beautiful book about the redemptive power of grief and love. There are scenes worth crying for, and scenes that will fill your heart. Don’t wait for a snowstorm to read The Summer After June. It is a book for any season.

When Lindy’s sister June is murdered, she takes June’s baby and leaves - without telling anyone where she is going or why. This novel is about the summer that she is gone. We know that Lindy goes back, since the novel actually begins with the ending, in the form of a five page prologue where the reader learns that Lindy is going home. In the rest of the novel she comes to terms with what she has done and learns about herself and others.

Definitely a literary novel - Warlick is more concerned with Lindy and the other characters and the choices that they make than with any plot - and that’s OK. I actually went to a workshop on POV choices taught by the author at the South Carolina Writer’s Workshop which was great. She’s a wonderful writer with some great insight.

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