Novel
A Stolen Summer
“Lovely and lyrical. An erotic adventure that will have readers turning the pages well into the night.” — Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City
Wife, mother, friend—Eve Armanton is all of these things. But who is she really? Now that her son has left home, Eve no longer recognizes the middle-aged woman staring back at her each morning—or the cold, loveless marriage she finds herself left in.
A chance meeting with Micajah Burnett, the son of an old school friend, stirs Eve in ways she hasn’t felt in years. Micajah offers youth, desire and freedom—and Eve takes the dangerous and liberating step into a passionate affair. Eve is about to discover who she was, who she is and who she can be. Only one thing is certain—nothing will ever be the same again . . .
“It is a ravishing love story, hot-blooded, poignant, often dark, filled with yearning, sharply funny, marvelously observed: and you follow Eve every step of the way. I wished it would go on and on and never stop.” — Joanna Lumley
From Reviews
“The book is suffused with sensual feeling from the very first page . . . Huston constructs a delicate and compelling edifice of images, symbols, and motifs — flowers, scents, music, games, the act of artistic creation — that feed into and off each other. The ultimate power of Huston’s book lies in her insight that love and happy endings do not have to depend on one another to coexist.” — Los Angeles Review of Books
“Huston’s prose is spare and at times wonderfully poetic. Readers who are looking for a more internal, thoughtful read will want to try this debut.” — Library Journal
“This sensual tale of self-discovery and empowerment that’s sure to please fans of romantic women’s fiction.” — Booklist
“In fast-paced but thoughtful prose, Huston challenges traditional assumptions about relationships and shows beauty being discovered in unlikely places. A new take on the May-December romance, perfect for fans of unexpected gifts.” — Kirkus Reviews
From other writers
“Allegra Huston is a fluid, intelligent storyteller, a writer of beautiful, sexy prose. I love her frankly gleeful portrayal of a woman following her own desires and instincts, wherever they lead, to unexpected and unplanned adventures. A Stolen Summer is the Fear of Flying for the 21st century.” — Kate Christensen, author of The Great Man and Trouble
“A Stolen Summer is a dazzling debut about a highly-charged and very sensual affair. Skilfully crafted, original and beautifully written, it is an engaging and erotic read. Loved it!” — Santa Montefiore, bestselling author of The Beekeeper’s Daughter, Secrets of the Lighthouse, and The French Gardener
“Sensual, breathless, and utterly absorbing.” — Christina Baker Kline, NYT bestselling author of Orphan Train
“Beguilingly sexy and seriously smart all at once! How unusual, how delightful, how fun!” — Lara Santoro, author of Mercy and The Boy
“At last. A sexy and serious novel that deals with that persistent prejudice – love between an “older woman” and a younger man. Sensational – and surprisingly sweet.” — Rachel Johnson, author of the Notting Hell trilogy
“Absolutely terrific: powerful, beautifully paced, controlled and assured. An extremely perceptive look into the female psyche.” — Elizabeth Buchan, prizewinning author of Consider the Lily and Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman
“Intriguing, sexy and honest” —Joanna Briscoe, bestselling author of Sleep With Me
“A delicious novel – elegant, poignant, erotic” – Kate Beaufoy, author of The Gingerbread House and Liberty Silk
“In this sensual novel Allegra Huston lays bare the rules of love and attraction, portraying with great insight the vulnerability that comes with the urgency of infatuation, along with its dangers.” — Francesca Marciano, author of The Rules of the Wild and The Presence of Men
“A sexy tale featuring a complicated woman of a certain age. What’s not to like?” — Lucinda Rosenfeld, author of Class
“A whisper on the skin, a jolt in your core—A Stolen Summer is both gentle and fearless: an intelligent, intimate, beautifully written love story that delves into the secret music of desire.” — Joan Juliet Buck, author of Daughter of the Swan and The Price of Illusion
A Stolen Summer Q & A
What was the initial idea for A Stolen Summer?
When I decided to write an erotic novel, I started with my own favorite fantasy. I always wanted to be the girl that a great love song was written for.
How do you feel about relationships between older women and younger men?
Well, clearly I’m in favor of them! In fact, I feel that in the short term, it is the perfect relationship. Neither partner is looking to the long term; neither partner wants children or has to worry about pregnancy; and it’s a relationship that requires both partners to be confident in themselves, not caught up in their egos. At its best, it’s truly a relationship between souls.
What’s interesting is that I believe there’s still an unspoken taboo about short-term relationships. I don’t mean one-night stands; those are depressingly acceptable. The relationship between Eve and Micajah has all the depth and connection of a long-term possibility. Yet I think that, when we begin a new relationship, we feel that we’re supposed to at least pretend that this could be permanent—but the age difference makes that pretense seem silly. Since we’ve abandoned the idea, as a society, that procreation is the primary purpose of a relationship, I believe this is the root of the prejudice that still exists against older women/younger men. It’s maybe the last holdover from the days when the social fabric was woven from marriages.
Some readers have made the comparison between A Stolen Summer and Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying. Do you feel that’s legitimate?
I was very inspired by Fear of Flying. When I decided to write this novel, that was the first book I read. It was hugely liberating to women in its time, and I hope that A Stolen Summer might inspire women to a new level of liberation and self-empowerment. What struck me most was Erica Jong’s willingness to say the things that people don’t articulate, with no shame or prurience.
Do you think a love story is still relevant in these times? Is your book escapist?
A love story is always relevant, since we’re biologically wired to fall in love. It’s one of the characteristics that all humans share. But I didn’t want to tell an old-fashioned love story, with a happily-ever-after or a sad parting. In my original outline, Eve and Micajah ended up together on a Greek island, but soon I came to feel that was just stupid. To end a love story with a woman choosing to be single, but newly empowered to conquer the world on her own, feels much more relevant to the times we live in. To me, this is a contemporary happy ending.
What is the music for which Micajah gives up his rock career?
My friend Roger Landes used to run a musicians’ camp called Zoukfest. It was centered on the bouzouki, which is a Greek instrument that became a staple of Irish music, but it extended to Balkan, Middle Eastern, Andalucian, gypsy, and medieval music, and more besides. And in various combinations. I fell in love with instruments, such as the yayli tambur, that I’d never even heard of before. This is where I saw Gary Hegedus of the group Stellamara hold the violin along his arm, the way Micajah plays it. This is Micajah’s crowd.
Do you consider Eve’s Flowers to be a sex toy?
I don’t, although I don’t know what I’d call them instead. For me, sex implies more than one person, and it implies a destination of orgasm (though not everyone would agree with me, I suspect). I imagine Eve’s Flowers as a secret pleasure that makes the hardships of daily life easier, that makes her feel warm inside. That feeling when someone strokes your hair and your head tingles—wouldn’t it be nice to have something like that throughout your day?
The landscape and sensibility of Taos, New Mexico, where you currently live, is awe-inspiring. Has it had an impact on your writing?
For eighteen years before I moved here, I lived in London, and led a rather proper life working in publishing and then film distribution. Probably nobody who knew me then would have imagined the turn my life took. My inner hippie emerged when I moved to Taos (or perhaps that’s what made me move here): I love living among people who are following their own wyrd, as my brother Tony calls it. It’s an old Scottish word for destiny. Eve is in many ways like me, and certainly her transformation from a conventional suburban housewife to someone who is willing to take ownership of a project that, let’s say, isn’t going to be universally accepted, mirrors my own sense of liberation from the social rules of my past.
The New York Times said of your memoir Love Child, “Few autobiographical writers have such dizzying tales to tell.” Do you think your unusual family upbringing has influenced your storytelling?
It’s hard to say, because of course I can’t compare to a version of me that had a different childhood. I do think that my father John Huston’s willingness to accept me as his daughter even though I was not biologically his child, and the close family relationship I have with my biological father and his other children, taught me that social rules and customs, along with the emotions that they foster in situations such as mine—emotions like resentment, anger, jealousy, and bitterness—are transcended by love.