Hurricane Summer

In this sweeping debut, actress Asha Bromfield takes readers to the heart of Jamaica, and into the soul of a girl coming to terms with her family, and herself, set against the backdrop of a hurricane.

Tilla has spent her entire life trying to make her father love her. But, like clockwork, every six months since she was a girl, he's left their home in Canada for his true home, the island of Jamaica. When she's sent there to live with him for the summer, there's a big part of Tilla that dreads having to deal with this taciturn and mysterious man, yet she longs to discover what life in Jamaica has always held for him. What is it about this place that is more important than being home with their family? What could possibly mean more to him than her? When she gets to Jamaica, the pull of the island is immediately apparent, but so too are the cracks in the family she hasn't seen in years. In an unexpected turn of events, Tilla is forced to face a storm that threatens to unravel her own life as she learns about the dark secrets that lie beyond the veil of paradise, just as an actual storm, Hurricane Gustav, threatens the lives of those she loves.

Hurricane Summer is a powerful coming of age story that deals with colorism, classism, young love, sexism, and explores how the father-daughter relationship can shape the course of a young woman's life. At its core, this debut takes the reader on a riveting journey that explores what it means to discover your own voice, in the center of complete destruction.