'Til Summer's End

Book excerpt: As Sarah announces shes pregnant, Geology Professor Mark Kingsley retreats into silence -- their perfect marriage arrangement over. Still she remains until the doctoral acceptance letter from the University of Washington arrives. While Mark is on another hiking trip, Sarah moves out, his only contact a monthly check. In Seattle, work, graduate classes, motherhood and preparations for a return trip to West Africa for her dissertation in ethnomusicology leave Sarah little time for remorse or to grieve her grandparents recent tragic deaths. Surely, a week on the Idaho family farm will rejuvenate her and give her time to reflect. On the drive over, Sarah can almost hear the bacon sizzling in the cast iron skillet, taste her mothers cinnamon rolls. Mornings shell join her Dad on the porch to watch the sunrise above the Idaho wheat fields and listen to the meadowlarks song. Refreshed, shell leave Rachel with Mom and Dad, head back to Seattle, play matron of honor in her best friends wedding then fly to Ghana for the summer. She and her mother enjoy a shopping trip to Lewiston and reminisce while sorting through Grandma Myers hats. Will Sarahs perfect plans quickly unravel? Her menopausal mother still mourns her parents loss, her recently married younger brother is confrontational. Nightmares, unexplainable fatigue and a lengthy, soul-searching counseling session leave her exhausted and struggling to wake and her best friends wedding hoopla is another reminder shes a pining, sorta-single mom. In Ghana, fear and desperation pulse through her body with every drum beat. Exhaustion overtakes her, frightening the family whose hut she shares. Whats wrong with Sarah? Til Summers End, explores the interconnectedness of three generations -- the strain of birth, death, aging, mental and physical illness and marriage -- to pull apart or bring together. -