The Eighth Summer

In The Eighth Summer, the Mitchell family has shared their lovely Cape Cod style fixer-upper in Nantucket with their best friends. Amy and Tommy and their baby Gracie have hosted 7 years of casual breakfasts, outdoor dinners, and long nights of reminiscing over cold beers, sing a longs and talks on the porch. On this, the eighth year, as the strongest of friends are days away from reuniting, one of their own is tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. As Tommy and Amy gather their friends and prepare for Mark’s funeral, they each confess secrets, expose lies, and finally face the demons that have been dormant for so long. Through their heartbreak and pain the secrets that surface as they unite in the place that held so many joyous memories may harm the ties that bind them forever. It is with the deepest of interventions, in-depth soul searching and stripping of each individual’s pride that this group can come together again.

“The Eighth Summer” Set in Nantucket we follows seven best friends as they gather to bury one of their own. Following seven years of tradition, these friends share a week every August at two of the friends (Tommy and Amy’s) Nantucket beach house. On this, the 8th Summer, Mark, one of their own, is tragically killed in a motorcycle accident days before there scheduled yearly reunion. It has left each of the seven stunned, and grief-stricken. As they gather together to bond and heal from the loss of their brother, Mark’s death has brought to surface many truths untold within this intimate circle of friends. So together for the eight summer they desperately reach out for one another for comfort only to suddenly see one another in a different light all together. With one life gone, the other friends realize the frailty of life itself and the true meaning of friendship is defined by their ability to accept what they love and what they have discovered about the closest people to them. Eachother.

Lisa Mercado-Fernandez is the author of The Shoebox and now The Eighth Summer, her second novel. Born in The Bronx New York, Lisa worked as a teacher and later married and moved to Bucks County, PA where she currently lives with her husband and family including her two dogs, Rudy and Wally.