At the end of this summer
At the end of this summer is a novel by Carolyn Haines . This was the first novel by the writer from the American South.
Data
The novel appeared in its original title under Summer of the Redeemers (= Summer of the Redeemer) in 1994. The first German publication as a paperback was in 1997 in a translation by Christa Schuenke. Besides the criminal aspect, it's also a book about growing up.
content
The book is set in the southern United States in the 1960s and describes the total change in the living conditions of two girls. The 13-year-old Rebekka Rich, whose liberal parents are involved in the first struggles of the civil rights movement, and her best friend Alice Waltman see six old school buses with gray, sad shapes during the summer vacation. You are from the Blood of the Savior Congregation and are driving to a rectory with a church cemetery nearby. A few days later, Nadine Andrews moves to a nearby homestead, a young woman with dogs, cats and nine horses. Bekka is happy because she can learn to ride from Nadine. In addition, Bekka tries, mostly with Alice and her dog Picket, to spy on the Redeemer Congregation. So when the congregation went to Hattiesburg one day to stay there for several days, Bekka and Alice took their chance. They want to see what the legend of Cry Baby Creek, where twenty years ago a baby was drowned by a young mother named Selena, is all about. The crying of the baby can still be heard today on clear nights with a full moon in summer. In fact, they hear the whimper and see the ghost of Selena.
And Bekka is afraid that Alice doesn't want to talk about this experience. The mysterious events pile up and Bekka suspects the redeeming church. One day one of Alice's smaller siblings disappears. Finally it turns out that Nadine is to blame for everything, she kidnapped the baby and drowned it in Cry Baby Creek after she screamed too much. It also turned out to be Selena, the mysterious ghost. Over the course of that summer, the teenager discovers the sale of babies, the beating of children, the torture of animals, the seduction of minors, and finally the murder of an innocent child.
literature
- Carolyn Haines: The end of this summer . 5th edition. Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2006, ISBN 978-3-404-15542-2 .
review
One review says: "Haines's evocation of a particular place and time are certainly masterful, but her melodramatic plot is severely hindered by her narrator's early-adolescent point of view." (Haines' evocation of a particular place and time are certainly masterfully portrayed , but their melodramatic action is severely hampered by the narrative from the youth's point of view.)