Sixty Summers
Life’s too short for compromise . . .
Disenchanted with their lives, three old friends set off on a journey through Europe retracing the steps of a backpacking trip forty years earlier.
When Maggie, Fran and Rose met in their youth, they had dreams and ambitions. Forty years later, the three friends are turning sixty, each of them restless and disenchanted with their lives.
Fran works in a second-hand bookshop. Her lover, one in a long line of disappointing men, is drifting away and the future looks uncertain.
Maggie married into a volatile family. Her beautiful, indulged twin daughters are causing havoc and her elderly mother-in-law has moved in and is taking charge.
Rose has been an off-sider for her hopeless vague but academically brilliant husband and their two sons. Time is running out to find and fulfil her own ambitions.
In an attempt to recapture the sense of freedom and purpose they once possessed, they decide to retrace the steps of their 1978 backpacking trip through Europe and set off on an odyssey that will test their friendship, challenge their beliefs and redefine the third age of their lives. What could possibly go wrong?
Praise for Sixty Summers
‘Funny and astute, Sixty Summers is the wake-up call we all need.’
Better Reading
Sixty Summers is an involving novel that connects directly to the reader. I found pieces of all three women reflected in those around me. The highly relative nature of the characters is thanks to the work of author Amanda Hampson, who has strived to deliver a cast of characters that are entertaining, honest and likeable. I loved how these women were tested to their very limits, but they managed to hold each other up and cross that bridge! With some very important themes thrown in the mix, this is the ultimate female road trip story.
Mrs B’s Book Reviews
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Hampson’s storytelling is full of warmth and humour, while her descriptive prose conjures up wonderful images of the locations through the reminiscing eyes of the travellers.
Glam Adelaide
While I enjoyed the vicarious tour of Europe, visiting Paris, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, through Italy and over to Greece, richly described by the author, it’s really the emotional journeys of Hampson’s characters that kept me engrossed in this novel. In Sixty Summers, Hampson reminds us that the ‘third act’ need not be the final act, change is still possible, though it will take honesty and courage.
Book’d Out
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