New Novel Touches On The Lasting Friendships Made At Summer Camp

Image courtesy of Random House
Image courtesy of Random House

Growing up in Nyack, New York, Mandy Berman spent her summers as a camper, and eventually a counselor, at a camp in the Berkshires. Berman calls Brooklyn home now, but the memories and the friendships she made during those summers served as inspiration for her new novel, Perennials, which she wrote while getting an MFA in fiction from Columbia University.

Rachel Rivkin and Fiona Larkin used to treasure their summers together as campers at Camp Marigold. Now, reunited as counselors after their first year of college, their relationship is more complicated. Rebellious Rachel, a street-smart city kid raised by a single mother, has been losing patience with her best friend’s insecurities; Fiona, the middle child of a not-so-perfect suburban family, envies Rachel’s popularity with their campers and fellow counselors. For the first time, the two friends start keeping secrets from each other. Through them, as well as from the perspectives of their fellow counselors, campers, and their mothers, we witness the tensions of the turbulent summer build to a tragic event, which forces Rachel and Fiona to confront their pasts—and the adults they’re becoming. A seductive blast of nostalgia, a striking portrait of adolescent longing, and a tribute to both the complicated nature and the enduring power of female friendship, Perennials will speak to everyone who still remembers that bittersweet moment when innocence is lost forever.

Mandy Berman. Image by: Martin Bentsen
Mandy Berman. Image by: Martin Bentsen

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