How much change can one summer bring? If youre Caddie Winger - 32 years old, still living with her grandmother and giving piano lessons to neighborhood children - one summer can make the whole world look different. Caddies mother died when she was nine, and her grandmother raised her. Now their roles are reversed, and its Caddie who takes care of Nana. When her grandmother breaks her leg and insists on going into a convalescent home, Caddie finds herself being pulled out of her comfy, self-made nest. Living alone for the first time since college, she uncovers some startling truths from her past. Jolted, she looks at the world with new eyes and begins to take charge of her future. As she makes a new best friend, takes risks she never dreamed she could, and navigates the depths and shallows of true love and devastating heartbreak, Caddie learns how to trust other people, and, ultimately, how to trust herself. Wise, moving and reassuringly real, THE GOODBYE SUMMER offers us a deeper understanding of the perplexing and invigorating magic that is life itself.