One Summer------pan macmillan
When thirty-four-year-old ex-war veteran Jack Armstrong is told he
has only weeks to live, his first concern is for his beloved wife
Lizzie, and their children: baby Jackie, twelve-year-old would-be actor
Cory and rebellious teenage daughter Mikki. It seems so cruel that an
apparently fatal illness should claim him, a survivor of Afghanistan and
Iraq, when he still has so much left to live for.
On Christmas Eve,
as Jack prepares to say goodbye to his family, unthinkable tragedy
strikes again and Lizzie is killed in a car accident. Just when Jack
thought living was far harder than dying, and the children’s future
looked so bleak, something remarkable happens which gives Jack the
valuable second chance he’d only dreamed of.
Unexpectedly, the
family inherits Lizzie’s beautiful childhood home on the oceanfront in
South Carolina. During one unforgettable summer Jack and the children
struggle to rebuild their lives. They learn to live again – and to love
again. And they learn the biggest lesson of all – the importance of
family.