ENCHANTED AUGUST

A sparkling summer debut that transports readers to a picture-perfect island in Maine, in a witty, wish-fulfilling tale of love and reawakening.

It’s a rainy summer in Park Slope, Brooklyn, when two unhappily married women, Lottie Wilkinson and Rose Arbuthnot, spot a tattered ad on their children’s preschool bulletin board: Hopewell Cottage Little Lost Island, Maine. Old pretty cottage to rent on a small Maine island. Spring water, blueberries, sea glass. August. Neither can afford it, but they are smitten. To share expenses, they find two companions: Caroline Dester, the exquisite darling of the independent movie scene, and elderly Beverly Fisher, who is recovering from heartbreaking loss. Transformed by the refreshing summer breezes, steamed lobsters, and cocktail hours on the wrap-around porch, the unlikely quartet gradually begin to open up to one another, and ultimately rediscover their capacity to love and be loved. With a cast of quirky and endearing characters set against the beauty of an idyllic New England summer, Enchanted August brilliantly updates the beloved classic Enchanted April and offers readers a universal fantasy: one glorious summer month away from it all. Brenda Bowen is a former publisher and now literary agent and author. Under the pseudonym Margaret McNamara she has written more than forty books for children, with more than a million copies sold. This is her debut adult novel. Bowen lives in New York and spends as much as her summer as she can on an island in Maine very like Little Lost Island