It is a swelteringly hot summer of wet hot days and restless nights. A lonely teenage girl spends her days reading on her porch and cycling with her only schoolfriend, Joe. One day, a new girl, Clara, moves in to stay with her grandmother next door. Drawn to each other, the two girls form a deep friendship, bonding over their shared love of a series of science fiction novels. They soon become inseparable, watching cooking shows on TV, reading by the local creek and cycling around town. As their friendship deepens, they share their innermost feelings and begin to feel uniquely connected.
But Clara is hiding a family secret, one that will disrupt their idyllic summer together and set them on diverging paths.
First Summer is a deeply sensitive, vivid novel about a blossoming friendship and first love - and how they come to define our later lives.