BOOK CLUB: NOVEMBER’S SELECTION! TRAVEL TO BARBADOS WITH THE SUMMER COUNTRY, BY LAUREN WILLIG

November is here, and for most of us, that means cooler temperatures setting in as we begin to hunker down for winter. I don’t know about you- but the Wilson clan loves to do at least one warm weather getaway each winter when our world at home in New England gets particularly cold.

Barbados is an Eastern Caribbean island with some of the clearest and most turquoise water I have ever seen. An idyllic vacation spot for those looking to soak up the sun (I use the phrase mostly for the alliteration and personally lather up in SPF, hiding in the shade, whenever possible…), splash in the ocean, and enjoy rum-based drinks (this, I will do), Barbados is one of the best places for all of the above.

While we likely won’t physically be going anywhere tropical this winter due to travel restrictions and the obvious current way of the world, the Wilsons in Wanderland Book Club is going to take us on a literary, time-traveling journey to Barbados, by way of author Lauren Willig’s book, The Summer Country. And, best of all- Lauren will be joining us at the month to talk all about it!

If you’re not already a member, you can join our group and come along with us to Barbados, here:

The Wilsons in Wanderland Book Club: for those who love Travel, Reading + International Cuisine.

And here are some details on The Summer Country, below!

FROM THE BACK COVER

The New York Times bestselling historical novelist delivers her biggest, boldest, and most ambitious novel yet—a sweeping, dramatic Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial Barbados

Barbados, 1954: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan—merely a vicar’s daughter, and a reform-minded vicar’s daughter at that. Everyone knows that the family’s lucrative shipping business will go to her cousin, Adam, one day. But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados—a plantation her grandfather never told anyone he owned.

When Emily accompanies her cousin and his new wife to Barbados, she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, destroyed in 1816, when a rising of enslaved people sent the island up in flames. Rumors swirl around the derelict plantation; people whisper of ghosts.

Why would her practical-minded grand-father leave her a property in ruins? Why are the neighboring plantation owners, the Davenants, so eager to acquire Peverills? The answer lies in the past—a tangled history of deception, greed, clandestine love, heartbreaking betrayal, and a bold bid for freedom.A brilliant, multigenerational saga that begins in the years of slavery and riches and ends in a time of industry and new beginnings, The Summer Country boldly unravels the legacy of two powerful families, and the secret ties that bind them.