28 Summers

When Mallory Blessing is on her deathbed, she gives her son a phone number to call, connecting him to Jake McCloud, whose wife is the frontrunner in the upcoming presidential election. This one phone call unravels a secret that has been kept for decades. The story then returns to the summer of 1993 on Nantucket, where Mallory and Jake meet and form an immediate, undeniable bond. Their connection sparks a unique tradition: a secret meeting for one weekend a year, every year, no matter what is happening in their separate lives.

This arrangement continues through marriages, children, and career changes, creating a tapestry of love, loyalty, and sacrifice woven through nearly three decades of summers. The novel explores the profound impact of a single weekend on the course of a lifetime and the complex ways relationships shape personal histories. It poses the question of what it means to love someone you can never truly have and examines the choices that define a life.