Emylia Hall did not grow up just like her protagonist, Beth Lowe, but the two do have a few things in common, most notably, a connection to Hungary. Hall, who grew up in the English countryside (Devon, to be exact), has always been drawn to a quieter pace of life. Although she spent a stint in London, it was once she returned to a more peaceful existence—she now lives outside of Bristol—that she began writing The Book of Summers. In the novel, nine-year-old Beth suffers a devastating blow when her parents separate and she goes to live with her distant father, only to return to her mother, who lives in the Hungarian countryside, for summer visits. Hall talked to us about the Hungary of her own youth—her mother was born there—and the way the elusive power of memory inspired her work:

"We'd go away for four or five weeks at a time, and these became defining experiences. My dad would put together really great photo albums of all our trips, and they really whetted my appetite for foreign travel and all things international. And so, I always felt very lucky that I'd had these experiences. As I grew older, I grew to appreciate them a little bit more, and when I began thinking about writing, the experiences came back to me in absolute technicolor. The story itself has lots of emotion and drama—fiction that was very much inspired by our travels. Just the slight smell of something or a snatch of music can take you back. Human capacity for recollection is an incredible gift. But it's also very sad: We can't ever go back....

So I became interested in writing about a character who had a complicated relationship with her memories. Someone who couldn't revel in them, and couldn’t flick through albums and laugh with parents about the funny thing that happened in Hungary, at age 12. … I guess the bit that I took from [my own] reality is that my mum was born in England to Hungarian parents. She really felt a great pull to Hungary, so when we were first traveling there, I think she felt in many ways like she was going home, and expected my sister and me to feel as though we were half Hungarian and had a connection with this country, too. And, in many ways, we did feel at home in Hungary because there were lots of things that were quite familiar, such as the food and little snatches of the language. But there was also a lot that was very strange and very foreign. …

The last time I went [back to Hungary] was actually in 2007, around the time that I started writing the book. I had this really great month there; I was with my current husband, and we were learning to windsurf on Lake Balaton, this incredible lake in the middle of [the country].We had a really fantastic time. I was playing around with the writing, too, and just feeling my way into the story. So it was really inspiring to be in the country that I was attempting to write about. But to be honest...the vivid imagery in the book and the color and the kinds of sights and sounds of Hungary are very much from my own memory because, like I said, these travels that we had, they just imprinted themselves on my mind."

(Year: 2012 / Pub Month: June / Title: The Book of Summers / Author: Emylia Hall / Format: Trade / ISBN: 978-0-7783-1411-0 / Price: $14.95 U.S. and $17.95 CAN.)