Whitcoulls Recommends: Summer Island and The Surrogate Mother

Summer Island by Kristin Hannah: Kristin Hannah is the author of several extremely popular books, including The Nightingale and The Women. They’re historical fiction, but this one is contemporary - about a broken mother and daughter relationship. Nora Bridge is a nationally syndicated talk show host who dispenses moral and spiritual advice to her legion of listeners, and whose daughter Ruby is a wannabe stand up comedienne, using her mother as the butt of a lot of her jokes. When Nora is publicly shamed and the two of them are thrown together, family secrets emerge which bring about a reconciliation, and a show of courage that neither knew they had.

The Surrogate Mother by Freida McFadden: Abby is desperate for a baby but has been unable to conceive, so when Monica, her new work assistant, offers to act as a surrogate she and her husband are thrilled. Things, though, don’t go quite as they’d planned - Abby becomes increasingly sure that Monica’s up to no good, but who can she tell and who will listen? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Ab Joan Mackenzie joins me, Now, good morning, Good morning.
Oh I do love a Kristin Hannah book.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Yes, well, this one's called Summer Island. It's not actually
new though. It was first published in two thousand and one,
and of course she's gone on to write loads of
books since, including the phenomenally successful book The Women, which
is doing the rounds at the moment, and I think
her publishers have probably dragged this out from the archive
to capitalize on the current interest in her writing. I

(00:41):
enjoyed it. It's an easy read, it won't particularly challenge you,
but it's the story of a mother and daughter relationship
which has broken down irretrievably. I'd say. Norah Bridge has
made a name for herself as a nationally syndicated agony
Aren't on a talkback show and she gives out a
spiritual and moral wisdom to her listeners until she's blackmailed

(01:03):
by a former lover and she's very publicly shared aimed.
Her daughter Ruby hates her, and she's been trying to
make a career as a stand up comedian with a
lot of her jokes being really unkind ones about her mother.
And then when Laura falls from grace, Ruby's offered a
lot of money to write a tale old book about her,
which she accepts and banks the money inevitably. You know

(01:25):
how these books go. They both end up at the
same time, back in the family home on Summer Island,
which of course is the title of the book. As
well as the family drama. There's a love interest. There's
a former neighbor who Ruby loved and left. He's back
in town. You can see where all this is going.
But there's nothing wrong with a bit of reconciliation and redemption.

(01:46):
And I found it very warm hearted and as I said,
easy to read.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
So are they re releasing this because it's sort of
got She became hugely popular after this book, and they
just want to bring it to people's attention. Is that
kind of okay? Yes, that makes sense, there we go.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Freda McFadden, Yes, she's quite the name of the moment. Yeah,
this book is called The Surrogate Mother. Freda McFadden's become
a real literary sensation, as I understand it. She self
published a large number of books and has been incredibly
successful and in recent times has been picked up by
a couple of the big international publishers and they're now

(02:23):
going back through some of her self published back catalog
as well as publishing her new books. They're mostly thrillers,
and the most well known one to date, which some
listeners might know of, is called The Housemaid, But the
Surrogate Mother a great premise, as you might imagine with
a title like that, has got Abby, who's a high
flying executive who's been desperate to have a baby but

(02:45):
it just hasn't worked out. And her assistant Monica steps
up and says she understands how tough that is and
she'd like to help and she'll put herself forward as
a surrogate. But as the months of the pregnancy pass,
Abby has an increasingly uneasy feeling about this woman. There's
lots of red flags and things that Abby picks up
on that no one else does, and no one will

(03:07):
believe her, and the coincidences and incidences ramp up. The
twists and turns do and it's fun. It's not challenging,
but it's great escapism and I just ripped through it.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Brilliant. Thank you so much joining those two books Summer
Island by Kristin Hannah and also The Surrogate Mother by
Freda McFadden.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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