Refinery 29’s Best Summer Books of 2020 In gently hypnotic prose, Zinna beautifully explores the transformative powers of grief, loneliness, intimate friendships, and the hunger we have to be understood.” “An unsettling, mesmerizing debut, which starts off on a small college campus and ends with a seaside camping trip in Sweden. “Zinna’s stunning debut novel is a twisting tale of grief, hope and self-deceit, a story as mesmerizing as the young women at its heart.” - BookPage (starred review) Zinna reaches an inspired emotional depth that, as the title signifies, never stops blazing.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) Zinna’s intimate debut dazzles with original language, emotional sentience, and Swedish folklore as it plumbs the depths of grief, loss, and friendship. Ultimately Lauren must acknowledge the truth of what happened with Siri and come to terms with her own tragic past in this gorgeously written, deeply felt debut about the transformative relationships that often come to us when things feel darkest.

On the last night of her trip, Lauren accompanies Siri and her friends on a seaside camping trip to celebrate Midsommar’s Eve, a night when no one sleeps, boundaries blur, and under the light of the unsetting sun, things take a dark turn. Siri is resentful, and Lauren starts to see a new side of her friend: selfish, reckless, self-destructive, even cruel. When Siri invites her along on a trip home to Sweden for the summer, Lauren impulsively accepts, intrigued by how Siri describes it: “Everything will be green, fresh, new, just thawing out.” But once there, Lauren finds herself drawn to Siri’s enigmatic, brooding brother Magnus. They fall headlong into an all-consuming friendship that feels to Lauren like she is reclaiming her lost adolescence.

She seems to exist at a remove from everyone around her until a new student joins her class: charming, magnetic Siri, who appears to be everything Lauren wishes she could be. But in her personal life, Lauren is troubled and isolated, still grappling with the sudden death of her parents ten years earlier. In the classroom, she is poised, smart, and kind, well-liked by her students and colleagues. Lauren Cress teaches writing at a small college outside of Washington, DC. A lonely young woman gets too close to her charismatic female student in a propulsive debut culminating in a dangerously debauched Midsommar’s Eve–for readers of Julie Buntin’s Marlena and Emily Fridlund’s History of Wolves.

Diane zinna the all night sun