BUTTERFLY SUMMER

A middle-aged TV producer returns to her ancestral home off the coast of Italy and confronts a trauma from her youth in De Palma’s novel.

Anna has been working on a reality show called Bride-to-Be for several seasons, but the program’s struggles are escalating. When plans to film the finale in a beautiful vacation spot get derailed by an earthquake, Anna’s well-intentioned but meddling assistant, Cheryl, convinces the team they should move the shoot to Anna’s deceased aunt’s home on the idyllic Italian island of Ischia. Though Anna is adamantly opposed, her team is excited by the optics, and before she knows what’s hit her, she’s nine times zones away from her California home on a hydrofoil to Ischia. The narrative then flashes back to 1984, when teenage Anna spent a fateful summer as her aunt’s ward on the island. It’s clear something terrible happened that summer, but adult Anna wants to avoid those memories at all costs. As the story alternates between past and present, Anna struggles to save Bride-to-Be while also confronting the difficult losses and revelations she faced in her youth. In this well-paced, plot-driven novel, the narrative’s greatest strength lies in its lush and evocative descriptions of Ischia—readers will be able to taste the garlic in the air and feel the pebbly sand between their toes (“At a café, we pass a group of men arguing about politics. Mostly, the corso is filled with women out buying the fresh meat, cheese and pasta they will use for the pranzo, the midday meal”). Anna is well developed and full of complex, layered emotions; she shines brightest in the chapters detailing her youth. The present-day timeline feels like part of a different, more topical story, with its frazzled Hollywood TV execs, annoying logistical issues, and overly aggressive groom. While the flashbacks are full of ripe emotions, the modern-day scenes leave genuine sentiments fighting for space on the page. Similarly, the TV-production problems receive disproportionate attention, serving mainly as a distraction from the more compelling examination of Anna’s attempts to reconcile her unsatisfying present with difficult moments from her past. Even so, the author deftly tackles complex issues ranging from self-discovery and loss to identity-building and healing.

An uneven but ultimately worthwhile story of personal growth.