Summerlong
Peter S. Beagle
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
“A rare story of summer that feels like the summer?like dreamy intense passions rising and arcing and then spinning away; like beauty underlaid with a tinge of sadness because it is ephemeral.”
?—New York Times
?—New York Times
Beloved author Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) returns with this long-anticipated new novel, a beautifully bittersweet tale of passion, enchantment, and the nature of fate.
It was a typically unpleasant Puget Sound winter before the arrival of Lioness Lazos. An enigmatic young waitress with strange abilities, when the lovely Lioness comes to Gardner Island even the weather takes notice. And as an impossibly beautiful spring leads into a perfect summer, Lioness is drawn to a complicated family. She is taken in by two disenchanted lovers?dynamic Joanna Delvecchio and scholarly Abe Aronson ? visited by Joanna’s previously unlucky-in-love daughter, Lily. With Lioness in their lives, they are suddenly compelled to explore their deepest dreams and desires.
Lioness grows more captivating as the days grow longer. Her new family thrives, even as they may be growing apart. But lingering in Lioness’s past is a dark secret ? and even summer days must pass.
It was a typically unpleasant Puget Sound winter before the arrival of Lioness Lazos. An enigmatic young waitress with strange abilities, when the lovely Lioness comes to Gardner Island even the weather takes notice. And as an impossibly beautiful spring leads into a perfect summer, Lioness is drawn to a complicated family. She is taken in by two disenchanted lovers?dynamic Joanna Delvecchio and scholarly Abe Aronson ? visited by Joanna’s previously unlucky-in-love daughter, Lily. With Lioness in their lives, they are suddenly compelled to explore their deepest dreams and desires.
Lioness grows more captivating as the days grow longer. Her new family thrives, even as they may be growing apart. But lingering in Lioness’s past is a dark secret ? and even summer days must pass.
Product Details
| Publisher | Tachyon Publications |
| Publish Date | September 06, 2016 |
| Pages | 240 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781616962449 |
| Dimensions | 8.5 X 5.5 X 0.5 inches | 8.0 pounds |
BISAC Categories: Fantasy, Literary Fiction
About the Author
Peter S. Beagle is the internationally-bestselling author of the fantasy classic, The Last Unicorn, which has sold over five million copies since its initial publication in 1968. His novels include A Fine & Private Place, The Innkeeper’s Song, Tamsin, and most recently, Summerlong and In Calabria. His short fiction collections include The Line Between and Sleight of Hand. Beagle is also the editor of The Secret History of Fantasy and The New Voices of Fantasy (with Jacob Weisman). His screenwriting credits include Star Trek and the animated films of The Lord of the Rings and The Last Unicorn.
Beagle has won the Hugo, Nebula, Mythopoeic, and Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire awards, as well as lifetime achievement awards from Comic-Con and the World Fantasy Convention. He lives in Richmond, California, where he is working on too many projects to begin to name.
Beagle has won the Hugo, Nebula, Mythopoeic, and Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire awards, as well as lifetime achievement awards from Comic-Con and the World Fantasy Convention. He lives in Richmond, California, where he is working on too many projects to begin to name.
Reviews
Kirkus Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Historical Fiction You Won't Want to Miss
Washington Post Best Science Fiction and Fantasy to Read
Verge Most Exciting Sci Fi and Fantasy Books Coming Out
Pop Culture Beast Best Books of 2016
Powell's Staff Top Five Books of 2016
“A rare story of summer that feels like the summer—like dreamy intense passions rising and arcing and then spinning away; like beauty underlaid with a tinge of sadness because it is ephemeral. Beagle has captured that seasonal warmth here, beautifully, magically.”
—New York Times
[STARRED REVIEW] “Retired history professor Abe Aronson and his longtime lover, Joanna Delvecchio, encounter an enigmatic young beauty, Lioness Lazos, waitressing in a local diner. Abe offers her his old garage as a temporary home. From the moment she becomes part of their lives, changes—some miraculous, some devastating—begin affecting Abe and Joanna. Lioness’s presence inspires Abe to fulfill his cherished dream of playing second harmonica with a small jazz band and Joanna to learn the dicey sport of kayaking, even though she can’t swim. As their heady summer phases into early autumn, Lioness’s mysterious husband appears on the ferry from Seattle, bringing with him the chilly and inevitable resolution to Beagle’s strange and lovely lyric vision.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Best-selling fantasy-author Beagle crafts a tantalizing picture of an atypical Pacific Northwestern couple whose lives are interrupted by myth and mystery. When Joanna and Abe meet a young waitress named Lioness, they are immediately drawn to her primavera aura and offer her a home in Abe’s garage. Life on Gardner Island blooms in an endless summer during Lioness’ stay. The couple’s lives and their relationship continue as usual until Lioness’ attempt to run from her past begins to unravel when her mother and husband arrive in town . . . Themes of love, loss, nurturing, and adapting are wrapped up in this deliberate and bittersweet tale of what it is to love in your own time, in your own way.”
—Booklist
“In his first new novel in more than a decade, Beagle creates an intimate drama . . . A beautifully detailed fantasy.”
—Kirkus
“A quietly glowing and elegantly written revelation of the magic beneath everyday life.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Beagle uses an ancient myth as a backdrop, creating a brilliant stage to explore the personal dynamic of Abe and Joanna’s vibrant yet deteriorating relationship.”
—Washington Post
“In Summerlong, Beagle presents a rich, vibrant tale of romance between two older, savvier partners and enlivens it with his special brand of literary magic.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Beagle’s literary affinity for the proto-European myths at the heart of Greek and Norse mythology takes readers deeper and deeper into that ancient wilderness, via the relevant and resonant paths his work has always favored.”
—Seattle Times
“An excellent story of love, relationships, and responsibility with much to think about after the last page is read.”
—SF Revu
“Peter S. Beagle’s latest novel is a bewitching, impossible-to-categorise masterpiece.”
—Starburst
“Summerlong is a delicate and interesting work of speculative fiction that should please old Beagle fans and win him a few new ones.”
—LitReactor
“By turns achingly beautiful and soberingly down-to-earth, it is a fantasy for those who have grown up with fantasy.”
—Locus
“Summerlong is such a precisely drawn, beautifully written book.”
—Alex Dueben, author of Voices of a Living Tradition
“An exercise in masterful, hopeful heartbreak.”
—Green Man Review
“Beagle harnesses that long summer, that summer long, to tell a story steeped in myth and mystery, but with such fine portraits of its principles that its otherworldliness remains grounded and tactile. It’s a book that makes me shiver in anticipation of a winter that hasn’t quite come.”
—Barnes and Noble.com Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Blog
“The world and people of Summerlong will linger in my memory for more than a season, leaving traces of beauty, wisdom, and heartache behind.”
—The Emerald City
“Beagle is a master of fairytale, deftly creating a gossamer magic on the page. Summerlong is a tale that merges classic myth with modern storytelling. Absolutely beautiful.”
—Pop Culture Beast
“A lovely, tantalizing read that moves through a finely-detailed, familiar world into a tale as old and as urgent as language.”
—Patricia A. McKillip, author of Dreams of Distant Shores and Kingfisher
“Peter S. Beagle’s Summerlong is a rare treat. It revels in texture and music and the ordinary pleasures of life, while the mythic sneaks up on you in tiny ripples and currents, building and growing until suddenly, you realized you’re submerged in it. An urban myth for adults, a book of joy and love and worn edges. And a book of magic, wondrous, tragic and unending.”
—Kurt Busiek, author of Astro City and The Avengers
“Like a warm summer afternoon, Peter S. Beagle’s upcoming novel, Summerlong, is charmingly quiet yet deeply thoughtful, with an ambiance that will keep readers spellbound to the final page.”
—Fantasy Faction
“One of the best literary speculative fiction novels of the year . . . a masterpiece of subtle storytelling that enchants you with its beauty and wistfulness.”
—Risingshadow
“Romantic, bittersweet and heart-wrenching.”
—Hindustan Times
“Beagle’s prose is as always, beautiful.”
—Critical Writ
“You'll struggle to find a more absorbing, beautiful novel this year. 5 out of 5 stars”
—Bastian’s Book Reviews
“Soft, suffused with awe, and wryly, unflinchingly honest about the human heart, Summerlong is beautiful in its love for our messy complexity; for the first step into cold water, for the death that lets us grow again, and the ways we learn to love each other—and ourselves—wiser and better.”
—Leah Bobet, author of An Inheritance of Ashes and Above
“Charmingly quiet yet deeply thoughtful, with an ambiance that will keep readers spellbound to the final page.”
—The Quidnunc
“Peter S Beagle weaves myth and magic into a modern setting in a way which is truly magnificent.”
—Life Has a Funny Way
“Very, very beautiful.”
—Booklikes
“Beagle’s prose is undeniably brilliant.”
—Nerds of Feather
“Based in Greek myth, Summerlong is Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series for adults and is equally compelling. Here, just as Abe, Joanna, and Lily become strangely mesmerized by Lioness, so too the reader becomes so drawn into this novel that it is impossible to put aside.”
—Curious Mind Garden
“Reading this retelling of a classic evoked visceral feelings at summer’s turn. I highly recommend it!”
—Penguin Girl
“Inventive, sexy, and lyrical, Summerlong will make you fall in love with myths all over again.”
—Bustle
“Refreshingly different and fabulously written.”
—Galleywampus
“I was enchanted by this book. I was transported, surprised, and amazed by it.”
—The Warbler
“A marvelous meditation on an old myth in new clothes, looking at aging and youth in some very perceptive ways. Beagle started this several years back, and I’m glad he finished it this year."
—Locus, Year in Review
“Would I recommend starting your reading of Peter Beagle with Summerlong? Yes I would, so long as you don’t end there.”
—Richard Parks, author of the Yamada Monogatari series
“Altogether, Summerlong is a beautifully written novel. It has an intriguing tone that keeps you reading and its characters and the relationships they share stay with you . . . [a] lovely novel.”
—Between Human and Truth
“Beagle’s writing here is lovely—the dialogue is sharp, the parallel storylines of estranged daughters moving.”
—Fantasy and Science Fiction
“Summerlong, Beagle's most recent and more accessible novel is perfection. Every word has purpose, each tangled detail sculpts the characters into being, each chapter reflects the complexity of life . . . A gem, something to be cherished, re-read and shared.”
—Girl’s Guide to Sci-Fi
Washington Post Best Science Fiction and Fantasy to Read
Verge Most Exciting Sci Fi and Fantasy Books Coming Out
Pop Culture Beast Best Books of 2016
Powell's Staff Top Five Books of 2016
“A rare story of summer that feels like the summer—like dreamy intense passions rising and arcing and then spinning away; like beauty underlaid with a tinge of sadness because it is ephemeral. Beagle has captured that seasonal warmth here, beautifully, magically.”
—New York Times
[STARRED REVIEW] “Retired history professor Abe Aronson and his longtime lover, Joanna Delvecchio, encounter an enigmatic young beauty, Lioness Lazos, waitressing in a local diner. Abe offers her his old garage as a temporary home. From the moment she becomes part of their lives, changes—some miraculous, some devastating—begin affecting Abe and Joanna. Lioness’s presence inspires Abe to fulfill his cherished dream of playing second harmonica with a small jazz band and Joanna to learn the dicey sport of kayaking, even though she can’t swim. As their heady summer phases into early autumn, Lioness’s mysterious husband appears on the ferry from Seattle, bringing with him the chilly and inevitable resolution to Beagle’s strange and lovely lyric vision.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Best-selling fantasy-author Beagle crafts a tantalizing picture of an atypical Pacific Northwestern couple whose lives are interrupted by myth and mystery. When Joanna and Abe meet a young waitress named Lioness, they are immediately drawn to her primavera aura and offer her a home in Abe’s garage. Life on Gardner Island blooms in an endless summer during Lioness’ stay. The couple’s lives and their relationship continue as usual until Lioness’ attempt to run from her past begins to unravel when her mother and husband arrive in town . . . Themes of love, loss, nurturing, and adapting are wrapped up in this deliberate and bittersweet tale of what it is to love in your own time, in your own way.”
—Booklist
“In his first new novel in more than a decade, Beagle creates an intimate drama . . . A beautifully detailed fantasy.”
—Kirkus
“A quietly glowing and elegantly written revelation of the magic beneath everyday life.”
—Chicago Tribune
“Beagle uses an ancient myth as a backdrop, creating a brilliant stage to explore the personal dynamic of Abe and Joanna’s vibrant yet deteriorating relationship.”
—Washington Post
“In Summerlong, Beagle presents a rich, vibrant tale of romance between two older, savvier partners and enlivens it with his special brand of literary magic.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Beagle’s literary affinity for the proto-European myths at the heart of Greek and Norse mythology takes readers deeper and deeper into that ancient wilderness, via the relevant and resonant paths his work has always favored.”
—Seattle Times
“An excellent story of love, relationships, and responsibility with much to think about after the last page is read.”
—SF Revu
“Peter S. Beagle’s latest novel is a bewitching, impossible-to-categorise masterpiece.”
—Starburst
“Summerlong is a delicate and interesting work of speculative fiction that should please old Beagle fans and win him a few new ones.”
—LitReactor
“By turns achingly beautiful and soberingly down-to-earth, it is a fantasy for those who have grown up with fantasy.”
—Locus
“Summerlong is such a precisely drawn, beautifully written book.”
—Alex Dueben, author of Voices of a Living Tradition
“An exercise in masterful, hopeful heartbreak.”
—Green Man Review
“Beagle harnesses that long summer, that summer long, to tell a story steeped in myth and mystery, but with such fine portraits of its principles that its otherworldliness remains grounded and tactile. It’s a book that makes me shiver in anticipation of a winter that hasn’t quite come.”
—Barnes and Noble.com Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Blog
“The world and people of Summerlong will linger in my memory for more than a season, leaving traces of beauty, wisdom, and heartache behind.”
—The Emerald City
“Beagle is a master of fairytale, deftly creating a gossamer magic on the page. Summerlong is a tale that merges classic myth with modern storytelling. Absolutely beautiful.”
—Pop Culture Beast
“A lovely, tantalizing read that moves through a finely-detailed, familiar world into a tale as old and as urgent as language.”
—Patricia A. McKillip, author of Dreams of Distant Shores and Kingfisher
“Peter S. Beagle’s Summerlong is a rare treat. It revels in texture and music and the ordinary pleasures of life, while the mythic sneaks up on you in tiny ripples and currents, building and growing until suddenly, you realized you’re submerged in it. An urban myth for adults, a book of joy and love and worn edges. And a book of magic, wondrous, tragic and unending.”
—Kurt Busiek, author of Astro City and The Avengers
“Like a warm summer afternoon, Peter S. Beagle’s upcoming novel, Summerlong, is charmingly quiet yet deeply thoughtful, with an ambiance that will keep readers spellbound to the final page.”
—Fantasy Faction
“One of the best literary speculative fiction novels of the year . . . a masterpiece of subtle storytelling that enchants you with its beauty and wistfulness.”
—Risingshadow
“Romantic, bittersweet and heart-wrenching.”
—Hindustan Times
“Beagle’s prose is as always, beautiful.”
—Critical Writ
“You'll struggle to find a more absorbing, beautiful novel this year. 5 out of 5 stars”
—Bastian’s Book Reviews
“Soft, suffused with awe, and wryly, unflinchingly honest about the human heart, Summerlong is beautiful in its love for our messy complexity; for the first step into cold water, for the death that lets us grow again, and the ways we learn to love each other—and ourselves—wiser and better.”
—Leah Bobet, author of An Inheritance of Ashes and Above
“Charmingly quiet yet deeply thoughtful, with an ambiance that will keep readers spellbound to the final page.”
—The Quidnunc
“Peter S Beagle weaves myth and magic into a modern setting in a way which is truly magnificent.”
—Life Has a Funny Way
“Very, very beautiful.”
—Booklikes
“Beagle’s prose is undeniably brilliant.”
—Nerds of Feather
“Based in Greek myth, Summerlong is Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series for adults and is equally compelling. Here, just as Abe, Joanna, and Lily become strangely mesmerized by Lioness, so too the reader becomes so drawn into this novel that it is impossible to put aside.”
—Curious Mind Garden
“Reading this retelling of a classic evoked visceral feelings at summer’s turn. I highly recommend it!”
—Penguin Girl
“Inventive, sexy, and lyrical, Summerlong will make you fall in love with myths all over again.”
—Bustle
“Refreshingly different and fabulously written.”
—Galleywampus
“I was enchanted by this book. I was transported, surprised, and amazed by it.”
—The Warbler
“A marvelous meditation on an old myth in new clothes, looking at aging and youth in some very perceptive ways. Beagle started this several years back, and I’m glad he finished it this year."
—Locus, Year in Review
“Would I recommend starting your reading of Peter Beagle with Summerlong? Yes I would, so long as you don’t end there.”
—Richard Parks, author of the Yamada Monogatari series
“Altogether, Summerlong is a beautifully written novel. It has an intriguing tone that keeps you reading and its characters and the relationships they share stay with you . . . [a] lovely novel.”
—Between Human and Truth
“Beagle’s writing here is lovely—the dialogue is sharp, the parallel storylines of estranged daughters moving.”
—Fantasy and Science Fiction
“Summerlong, Beagle's most recent and more accessible novel is perfection. Every word has purpose, each tangled detail sculpts the characters into being, each chapter reflects the complexity of life . . . A gem, something to be cherished, re-read and shared.”
—Girl’s Guide to Sci-Fi
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