Midsummer is a novella about a family whose fate in part revolves around the grandfather’s spiritual experience when he uncovers the remains of a seventeenth-century Dutch ship while digging a subway tunnel under the area where the twin towers later existed in New York.All her life Joy has been haunted by this man she’s never met — her visionary grandfather, the artist Lorenzo. Lorenzo’s children did well in life, and almost a century later, his granddaughter Joy, a gifted linguist, marries the Canadian descendant of the lost ship’s captain. Yet nonno’s story also led to the death of Joy’s cousin Leonora, her Aunt Elena’s only child. It was a tragedy that might have been prevented by Joy’s father, Eddie, a man who’s been bruised by life and who seldom speaks to his sister. Yet in the year 2000, he has no choice. Wealthy Aunt Elena and Uncle Carlo are coming from Rome to New York City to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary. They’ve invited the family to dine at the sky-high tower restaurant above the tunnel where nonno Lorenzo saw his vision long ago. On the first day of summer, Elena and Eddie will face each other at last.

Born and raised in the New York City area, Carole Giangrande now resides in Toronto. Her novella, A Gardener on the Moon, was co-winner of the 2010 Ken Klonsky Novella Contest. She is the author of two novels, An Ordinary Star (2004) and A Forest Burning (2000) and a short story collection, Missing Persons (1994), as well as two non-fiction books: Down To Earth: The Crisis in Canadian Farming (1985) and The Nuclear North: The People, The Regions and the Arms Race (1983). Her most recent novella, Midsummer, was published to literary acclaim in 2014. She’s worked as a broadcast journalist for cbc Radio, and her fiction, articles and reviews have appeared in literary journals and in Canada’s major newspapers. While revising new work, she now comments as The Thoughtful Blogger (a space for interesting books and intermittent reflection), available through her website at http://www.carolegiangrande.com

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