Book #9: One Italian Summer, Rebecca Serle

 

The Synopsis

When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.

But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.

And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.

Rebecca Serle’s next great love story is here, and this time it’s between a mother and a daughter. With her signature “heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic” (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) prose, Serle has crafted a transcendent novel about how we move on after loss, and how the people we love never truly leave us.

Book Club Questions for One Italian Summer

1. The story starts after Carol had died. Katy is a wreck without her, and at the same time, seems ambivalent to her husband, Eric. What are your thoughts about this line—if your mother is the love of your life, what does that make your husband? What do you make of her frustration with her relationship with Eric?
2. The author Rebecca Serle provides an introspective look into Katy’s grief about losing her mom. Let’s talk about their close relationship.
3. Why did Katy decide to go on the Italian vacation? 
4. Have you ever been to Positano and the Amalfi Coast? Or would you want visit one day?
5. When Katy arrives to Positano, she is completely taken in with the scenery, the food, the people. How did it help start her healing journey making this big trip on her own?
6. What did you think when she first ran into Carol as a 30-year-old woman? How would you have reacted if you were in Katy’s position? What did you think about their dynamic in Italy?
7. Katy embarks on a fling with Adam who is also staying at the hotel. What did she learn from this fling with Adam?
8. Did you sense that, beyond Carol being alive and in her 30s, something else was off about this visit to Positano? Or were you surprised that Katy was actually in the 1990s and not present day?
9. We never got the actual reasoning why Kate went to 1990s Positano—what do you believe actually happened? Did she time travel, was it a dream or something else?
10. We learn a big secret from Carol—she left behind Katy as an infant to find herself in Italy before eventually returning home. Let’s talk about the impact this revelation had on Katy.
11. Katy is devastated and, in hurt and anger, she reveals who she is to a very shocked Carol. Do you think Carol deep down knew the truth about Katy?
12. While Katy looks back at her relationship with her mother as perfect, she starts to realize there were some cracks. For instance, she doesn’t make any decisions without her mother and she let her always take the lead. How did this realization help Katy grow and realize what changes she needs to make?
13. What did you think about her reconciling with Eric? Did that make sense to you after her attitude toward him and the fling with Adam? How will their relationship be different moving forward?