Release Date: January 18, 2022
About The Book:
Sarah Macmillan always puts her family first, but as she ages, she can’t quite stretch her arms wide enough to hold on to everyone: her career-minded and inattentive younger sister, Glennie; their grandparents, who are slowly fading; or the late-in-life pregnancy Sarah desperately wanted. But it’s her tumultuous relationship with Glennie that gives Sarah the greatest worry. She’d always believed that their relationship was foundational, even unbreakable. Though blessed with a happy marriage to Al, whose compassion and humor she admires, Sarah grows increasingly bitter about Glennie’s absences, until one decision forces them all to decide what family means, and who family is. Narrated by the chorus of their three voices, this elegantly told and deeply moving novel examines the pull of tradition, the power of legacies, and the fertile but fragile ground that is family, the first geography to shape our hearts.
About The Author:
Caitlin Hamilton Summie earned an MFA with Distinction from Colorado State University, and her short stories have been published in Beloit Fiction Journal, Wisconsin Review, Puerto del Sol, JMWW, Mud Season Review, Belmont Story Review, Hypertext Magazine, and more. Her story collection, TO LAY TO REST OUR GHOSTS, won the fourth annual Phillip H. McMath Book Award, Silver in the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Short Stories, and was a Pulpwood Queen Book Club Bonus Book. Her debut novel, GEOGRAPHIES OF THE HEART, was inspired by three stories in her collection. She spent many years in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Colorado before settling with her family in Knoxville, Tennessee. She co-owns the book marketing firm, Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity, founded in 2003. Find her online at www.caitlinhamiltonsummie.com.
Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/csummie
Instagram: https://instagram.com/chsummie
Twitter: @csummie
Book Blurbs:
“…gracefully wrought….outstanding….”—RAIN TAXI
“…beautiful….This novel of four generations is rich in nuance and its warmth and generosity leave a lasting impression.”—Southern Literary Review
“…Summie writes with admirable nuance.” —Publishers Weekly
“An accomplished, confident debut, with complex characters you’ll be rooting for.”—J. Ryan Stradal, bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest and The Lager Queen of Minnesota
“Caitlin Hamilton Summie writes like waves cross large oceans. Words, sentences, chapters and stories build with a complexity of wind, current, and underground tectonic force until they crash toward their resolution onshore. Her debut novel, Geographies of the Heart, is a new force of nature that readers of Summie’s work will love. Intense, searching, intimate in the moment and sweeping in its range, this novel is an oceans-wide meditation on the inseparability of family, and the redemption of loss.”—Andrew Krivak, author of The Bear
“Years of secrets, resentments, and words left unspoken force a family to examine the fragile complexities of the heart. A tender yet powerful journey, where bitterness gives way to the determination it takes to stitch lives back together.”—Beth Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
““Geographies of the Heart is both riveting and moving, its characters rendered with painstaking and loving attention. I got to know them very well, and the author made me care about them. Caitlin Hamilton Summie is not afraid to go deep, to explore the fears and emotions most of us spend so much time trying to conceal. I loved this novel. I only wish there were more like it.”—Steve Yarbrough, author of The Unmade World
Bloggers On Tour:
Oct. 8th- Plains Reading https://instagram.com/plains_reading
Oct. 12th- Reading Late Into The Night https://instagram.com/reading.late.into.the.night
Oct. 15th- Sarahs Bookstack https://instagram.com/sarahs.bookstack
Oct. 17th- She Just Loves Books https://instagram.com/shejustlovesbooks
Oct. 18th- Christina Luvs 2 Read https://instagram.com/christinaluvs2read
Oct. 21st- Pages and Pups https://instagram.com/pages_and_pups
Oct. 26th- Coffee Break Book Reviews https://instagram.com/coffee.break.book.reviews
Oct. 26th- Bookworm Mrschelle https://instagram.com/bookworm_mrschelle
Oct. 26th- Sarahs Bookish Reviews https://instagram.com/sarahs.bookish.reviews
Oct. 31st- CMT Loves Wine and Books https://instagram.com/cmtloveswineandbooks
Suzy Approved Book Tours 