TandeWrites

Today we are celebrating the book birthday of THERE WILL BE OTHER SUMMERS, my third book which is being released today, a handful of days before summer officially ends. THERE WILL BE OTHER SUMMERS is a young adult novel about a blind boy, a deaf girl, and a tearstained letter, and it is available to come home to your bookshelves today. It’s about the complexities of disability, discovering the wrong ways to be not okay, and how platonic soulmates can change your world overnight, perfect for fans of Alice Oseman‘s conversational prose and the heart-wrenching coming-of-age stories of Nina LaCour.

I’ll paste in the full description so we’re all aware what we’re getting into:

Ryn is morbidly fascinated by the ocean, and he constantly thinks of ways he might let it consume his life. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him from drowning. He might see past his sadness if he could still…well, see.

Asher lives for the future, counting the days until she turns eighteen when she’ll be old enough to move out of her mother’s house and feel some control over how she spends her time. She tries to see the good in everyone, probably for the best since she blocks out what they say about her. Not by choice, but she does it.

When Asher and Ryn meet in a group therapy exercise where they have to exchange letters, it’s unclear who saves whose life overnight. And when they make a pact to trade their lives for the remainder of the summer, it’s evident that they’ve both found the person who truly understands them: it’s only with Asher that Ryn can be himself—a lonely blind boy who might not be so alone after all. And it’s only with Ryn that Asher stops feeling so self-conscious about her deafness that she can forget to count down the days and start living them. They spend their summer trading letters and the brightest days of their lives, but when Asher finds a tearstained letter from a mysterious writer, it becomes clear that she’ll have to choose between whom she cares more about saving.

Please note that this book depicts issues of mental illness including anxiety and depression, blood and imagery reminiscent of self-harm, voluntary hospitalisation, suicidal ideation, and discussions of ableism and transphobia. I have done my best to approach these topics with sensitivity, but if you feel this kind of content may be triggering for you, please be aware.

Like all of my books so far, this one is about the horrors of being seventeen: remembering your former friends’ birthdays more often than your own, grieving a version of yourself that hasn’t existed since childhood, and feeling like everything is going right in your life but still being sick with sadness. Unlike my other books, this one draws significantly more from my personal experience with my teenage years. This book is a tribute to every person who made those years and every following one bearable. This book is a love letter to my friends: to song lyrics scrawled across the backs of my notebooks and my hands, to endless summer afternoons beneath the red cliffs, and saturated sunrises captured on film with a finger blurring the lens. It’s a love letter to the version of myself who clung to these characters for comfort for so many years. And, most of all, this book is a love letter to the moments that became a supercut of my own eternal blue summer.

THERE WILL BE OTHER SUMMERS is currently available to read in ebook, special paperback, and standard paperback format with a discreet cover for readers who may not be able to safely or comfortably have a book cover featuring pride flags in their homes. An audiobook edition is currently in production but, at time of filming, I do not have an estimate for the release date.

This book has been such a labour of love over the past ten years of my life and I’m so glad this story is making its way into the world and the hands of readers. A link to add it on Goodreads is available here, and a link to as many bookstores I can find that will stock the book online. Also available to request from your local libraries 🙂

“Curious, contemplative, and heart-achingly tender, There Will Be Other Summers is a poignant snapshot of being understood. With thoughtful disability, queer, and mental health rep, Anderson shows the myriad ways we can be there for each other when it seems the world is shutting us out.”

– Cass Biehn, author of Vesuvius

“To be known is to be loved, and There Will Be Other Summers neatly fills the need in the market for more platonic love stories. It’s also a thoughtful entry in the canon of coming-of-age novels, perfect for fans of Nina LaCour and John Green.”

– Emma Saska, author of March & Feather