Summerwater
(Book)

A series of vignettes offer the idle thoughts of a group of strangers vacationing in a Scottish holiday park during a very rainy day, lost in their own little worlds, until a shocking event unites them.

They rarely speak to each other, but watch from the safety of their cabins, peering into the half-lit drizzle of a Scottish summer day, making judgments from what little they know of their temporary neighbors. On the longest day of the year, twelve people go from being strangers to bystanders to allies as tragedy sneaks into their lives. A mother races up the mountain, fleeing into her precious dose of solitude. A retired man studies her return as he reminisces about the park's better days. A young woman wonders about his politics as she sees him head for a drive with his wife. A teenage boy escapes the scrutiny of his family in a kayak on the loch. As they begin to notice one particular family that doesn't seem to belong, nightfall brings an irrevocable turn. -- adapted from jacket