Summer Island: A Novel

Nora Bridge hosts a radio show called Spiritual Healing with Nora in Seattle. The radio show is a massive success, as is her newspaper column “Nora Knows Best.” Both the radio show and the newspaper column are available nationwide. Her listeners and readers applaud her ability to navigate conflict and note that she has a pure heart. However, Nora believes that her “impure” heart allows her to reach people, and she is acutely aware that she gave up a lot to be successful. During her climb to fame, she carefully hid family secrets she didn’t want the public to know about.

During a live recording of her radio show, Nora takes a call from a mother struggling to accept her daughter’s upcoming marriage. Nora talks the woman through her problem and then talks to several other callers before ending the show. She returns to her office to write personal thank-you notes to everyone who called the show.

Nora leaves the office and goes to a local hospital where a family friend, Eric, is dying of cancer. Eric’s family disowned him for being gay, and Nora is one of his only sources of support. When Nora arrives, Eric tells her that he is stopping cancer treatments on the advice of his doctor, meaning that he will soon die from cancer.