Summer of Love
Sisters Miranda and Winnie Hartley grow up in the wine country north of San Francisco. Each is smart, talented and ambitious. Their father dies under peculiar circumstances when the sisters are nine and six years old. Mother must now manage the family winery until Miranda, who has a knack for business and winemaking, takes over. Soon she stands out as a female producer of fine wines in a profession dominated by male snobs. Winnie graduates from Berkley and yearns to become a famous writer. When Miranda is 24 and Winnie 21, the 1967 Summer of Love celebrates newfound freedoms, music, alcohol, other drugs, and easy sex. A third main character, Miranda’s daughter Dawn, arrives in 1975. Later in life, at almost forty years old, Dawn sets out to find the real identity of the author (writing under a pen name) of a beloved series of children’s books that contain details unique to her family’s Hartley winery.
This novel covers the sisters’ friends, lovers, work and play from 1967 through 2024. Significant topics include farm labor strife, the relationship of French and California wines, the history of winery ownership, and life in Haight Ashbury at the peak of counterculture times. Addiction to alcohol and other drugs infuses the whole story. Bad choices lead to profound life-altering decisions, self-loathing, and family secrets. Readers will cheer for the main characters while suffering with them and their mistakes. The prose and dialogue fit the people and times and heighten the intensity of dramatic events. The music, settings, roads and vistas are all real. Maher’s story builds to the healing powers of love and deep, soul-searching journal writing. Recommended for readers wanting to revisit the 1960s, learn more about wines, and get wrapped up in a layered family saga.
