Alice Adams: Invincible Summer

After a while she stops and bobs about on the surface, tossed and buffeted by the waves. Eva tries to look back at the others on the beach but they are tiny figures now, and her eyes are dazzled by the light. She spreads out onto her back and drifts, savouring the sensation of weightlessness. These days she has a knee that aches in winter and her back makes her groan whenever she tries to lift Allegra, but here in the sea all of that slips away. The waves wash against her and for a moment it feels as if Keith is there with her, and not just Keith but something that feels like maybe a mother would too, all around her in the water. She feels light and clean, like the past is sliding away from her. Just for a moment, it feels like coming home.

I am indebted to a number of people for their help in bringing Invincible Summer to publication: my early readers, Katie O’Rourke and Elspeth Leadbetter, for their enthusiasm and encouragement; my wonderful literary agents, Kerry Glencorse, Susanna Lea and Mark Kessler, for loving and believing in the book; and my brilliant editors, Francesca Main, Judy Clain and Amanda Brower, who let me get away with nothing and as a result made Invincible Summer twice as good as it would otherwise be. More generally, this book is dedicated to David, Mark, Diane, Catherine, Jessica, Adrian, Anabelle, Anne, Eden, Elspeth, Lila, Rachel and Zlatina.