One-sentence blurb
In 1941, eighteen-year-old Lille Carrigan's ill-fated
summer of romance, lust, and indiscretion sets her hurtling through the dark,
towards events she never saw coming.
Short blurb
“Youth is a dream, a form of chemical
madness.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
It’s 1941, the last summer of American innocence, and
eighteen-year-old Lillie Carrigan is desperate to love and be loved, to lose
her virginity, to experience her life’s great, epic romance. Preoccupied with
whiskey and cigarettes, sex and Catholic guilt, Lillie unknowingly sets in
motion events leading to death and estrangement from her two best friends.
A decade on, Lillie is still haunted by the ghosts of
that summer. Did she act solely out of youthful naivety and adolescent
jealousy? Or perhaps there were darker forces at work: grief, guilt, sexual
assault, and the double standards of her strict religious upbringing. Searching
for patterns and meaning in the events of that year, and anxious to understand
the person she has become, Lillie reflects on the darkness of her tarnished
youth and confesses her sins.
Long blurb
The Essence of an Hour is
the debut novel from Susan Furber. Set in the summer of 1941, the story follows
eighteen-year-old Lillie Carrigan as she experiences first love with her
lifelong friend, Teddy McCalman. Bound together by shared experiences of early loss
and grief, Lillie and Teddy spend their time drinking and smoking, clinging to
each other and their intense romance. Desperate to lose her virginity, but held
back by Catholic guilt, past assault, and the judgement of her best friend,
Lara, Lillie battles with her sexual awakening and the double standards which
come with it. She is intoxicated by the summer’s heady mix of alcohol and
pheromones, not realizing that the events she sets in motion will lead to
anguish, trauma, and loss. Ten years on, Lillie recounts the story of that
summer, confessing to the sins of her past.
The ideas behind The Essence of an Hour came
from the author’s own interest in the cyclical nature of trauma, and her effort
to understand why ordinary people hurt each other, either intentionally or
unintentionally. Susan’s experience of being raised Catholic, and receiving a
Catholic education, sparked her desire to explore the struggles of young women
caught between sexuality and religion, the double standards they experience,
and the burden of carrying secrets of assault and abuse. Though The Essence
of an Hour has all the ingredients of a classic young adult novel, it is
certainly not a story you have heard before. You won’t find clichés, prom
queens, or happy endings within its pages. The Essence of an Hour is an
exquisite example of beautifully written literary fiction which will leave you
reeling.