One Summer in Savannah

DEBUT Alabama-based collection development librarian Harris’s first novel is filled with challenges, the first of which is the existence of Sara Lancaster’s daughter, who was conceived during a sexual assault. Alana resembles her father and similarly possesses a genius-level proficiency in mathematics. When Sara’s father begins to ail, mother and daughter leave the relative privacy of Maine for Savannah, to care for him and run his bookstore. Even though Savannah is where her sexual assault took place, Sara hopes to keep Alana’s existence a secret from the Wylers, the family of her attacker. While the focus of Harris’s novel is admirable in its exploration of the myriad shapes of forgiveness and the ripple effect of grief, there are too many contrived plot devices that muddy these messages. Among these are Sara’s love life taking a frankly unbelievable twist and the too-pat revelation of a mysterious benefactor who keeps the bookstore solvent.