Bittersweet Summer

Every summer, Luke and his family spend two weeks at their little cabin by the lake.  It's something he looks forward to every year, and this one is no different.  His excitement builds as they pass the familiar landmarks - the ice cream stand that sells the best flavor (peppermint stick), the decrepit barn, the little factory belching out smoke - until they finally hit the gravel road that takes them to the cabin and the lake. 

Surface Tension: A Novel in Four Summers is a poignant and bittersweet coming of age tale.  At 13, Luke is still excited to swim, go hiking and hang out on the lake.  But the next year, Luke is starting to see things a little differently; has the cabin always looked so small and run down?  And just when did his parents start getting so annoying?  By the time Luke is 16, he is learning some pretty hard lessons about what it means to grow up.  As his personal life gets more and more complicated, Luke begins to crave the simplicity of his childhood summers when things were easy and fun.  But, as we all know, you can never go back, much as you might like to.  And that, perhaps, is the hardest lesson of all.