Emily Giffin writes about friendship, love, and mental health in new novel ‘The Summer Pact’

Atlanta-based bestselling author Emily Giffin has just released her latest novel, “The Summer Pact,” and will celebrate with a book launch event at the Atlanta History Center on Friday, July 12.

The new book follows a group of college friends who, in the wake of tragedy, make a promise to always be there for each other. Ten years later, they find themselves reuniting for an adventure that will change their lives.

I recently sat down with Giffin at her Ansley Park home to discuss friendship, love, loss, the importance of talking about mental health, her favorite Atlanta book spots, and her recent brush with royalty.

I read “The Summer Pact” in two sittings. It’s such a moving portrait of friendship, and how our friendships sustain us through the darkest of times. The book is narrated by three characters who meet at the beginning of their freshman year of college at the University of Virginia and form an intense bond that deepens after the tragic death of their friend, Summer. Can you tell us a bit about each of them?

Thank you so much for saying that. With this novel, I wanted to write about the power of coming-of-age friendships. My characters lost their innocence the moment they lost their friend Summer. They were never the same, and we see how this continues to shape them when they come together to help each other through a different kind of crisis.

As for the three narrators, I’ll start with Hannah. I knew I wanted to have a traditional southern girl trying to find her own path. Hannah is under a lot of pressure from her narcissistic mother, who wants her to live her idea of a picture-perfect life without taking into account what Hannah truly wants.

The novel’s second narrator, Lainey, is very much a free spirit. She likes to have a great time. She has a ton of charisma and a big personality. But she is haunted by a family secret and drinks to numb herself and to cope with her feelings. This is the first time I’ve written about substance abuse with a protagonist, and I wanted to show how important friends are in dealing with weighty issues.

Lastly, we have Tyson. He is the rock of the group (and my favorite!). Tyson is also dealing with parental expectations as his mother and father are both high-profile federal judges, part of the DC elite, and he’s very bright and intellectual. Although he enjoys the academic pursuits that are expected of him, he’s not entirely happy as a lawyer in a big firm.

On the surface, it’s Hannah’s crisis — the collapse of the picture-perfect life – that brings the friends together. But the others realize they are all at turning points in their lives and have issues they must confront. I think that’s very true to life — that when we can take a pause in our life even if it’s just as simple as a benchmark birthday, we can rediscover ourselves. For example, as I approached my 30th birthday, I decided to quit my job at my large Manhattan law firm and move to London where I wrote my first novel, “Something Borrowed” (published 20 years ago)!

It’s not a spoiler to tell readers your characters end up escaping their lives by taking a trip to Capri. How did you choose Capri? And did you have the chance to go there for research?

I have always loved Italy. I’ve been to the Amalfi Coast, but I’ve never been to Capri. It captured my imagination because it’s both a historical and a mythical place (Homer’s Odysseus arrived at Capri’s famed cliffs with his companions). And yes, I did have the opportunity to do book research there. I wanted all the details to feel authentic and vivid. The trip was magical. I went with a very dear friend (who happens to be an Atlanta-based travel advisor), and we had the most wonderful time eating and drinking and exploring and dreaming. Because the island is small, I was able to cover a lot of territory in a short period of time and see and get a lot of material for “The Summer Pact.”

Reading your book, I started thinking a lot about how so many novels and television shows feature friendships among four women. This made me appreciate that one of your characters in this group is a man, Tyson, who is willing to quit his job and break up with his girlfriend to be there for Hannah.

You know, the age-old question from “When Harry Met Sally” of whether men and women can be friends or if it always morphs into a romantic entanglement. I’m a firm believer in the purity of male-female friendships and that there are plenty where the friendship is platonic from start to finish. I’ve always had close guy friends at every stage of my life. I remember at my eighth birthday party, five of the eight people at the party were boys. In college, I was a basketball manager at Wake Forest, and I had a lot of close friends on the team. Then in law school, my best friend was a guy. I think it adds another layer to include a male perspective. I love that Tyson brings a different viewpoint and that he is a man who so clearly values his friendships.

Tyson also offers a unique perspective as the only Black character in the trio.

Frankly, I thought it more interesting to mix it up and have that layer and perspective. The fact that Tyson is not only the only man in the group but is also Black adds a different element, which I was nervous about because I wanted to write his story authentically. There’s always the question of do I, as a white female writer, have the right to tell a story from a point of view that is not my own. At the same time, I always want to write books that reflect the diverse world in which we live.

Ultimately, I decided that because it was an ensemble cast with multiple viewpoints, I felt comfortable having a portion of the book being told from Tyson’s point of view. I simply had to approach that POV with care and diligence. I hope readers appreciate that risk and feel that I did a good job with it.

I also have a very close, Black male friend who read every chapter told from Tyson’s point of view and gave me some great notes along the way about the little things that make his perspective more genuine. For instance, there was a conversation between Tyson and his father, in which his father said, “As Black men, we can’t do that.” And my friend said that the father would not say “as Black men” because that is a given that goes without saying. So I edited the line to: “We can’t do that.” It was a small but great note.

“The Summer Pact” deals with some serious topics: mental illnesses, depression, substance abuse, and suicide. In all your work, how did you balance those heavy topics with the lighter, more romantic ones?

This might be a copout — or an overly simplistic answer – but those issues are part of life. Life is beautiful, but we go through these difficult experiences. We go through trauma and tragedy and pain and heartbreak. But the only thing we can do is to continue to go on with our lives, and try to find joy, connection, and purpose. That balance between romance and tragedy feels true to life.

Aside from that, I’m drawn to stories with multiple layers. I don’t want to spend several days reading a completely dark or a completely light book. My favorite movies and books have both.

I think the best friendships reflect this balance too; the friends you can tackle heavy experiences with, that you can be vulnerable with, but can also share moments where you can’t stop laughing are the most precious friendships to me. I wanted to include this type of friendship in “The Summer Pact.” The characters can take on serious issues, but they’re also a lot of fun.

The loss of Summer is the heart of the book, and of course, her name inspired the title. Her presence is felt even when she’s not there. What inspired the character of Summer in particular?

“The Summer Pact” is the first book I’ve written with a trigger warning. Summer, as we learn in the prologue, dies by suicide. I know there are so many layers to depression, and I’m not in any way trying to oversimplify the illness. It is an incredibly complex topic. But we have seen that young people, particularly college athletes like Summer, experience this heavy pressure and toxic culture perfectionism which can lead them to make these very impulsive decisions.

Suicide affects some of the best and the brightest, which I really started to delve into in 2017 when Kate Spade took her life and then when Anthony Bourdain died by suicide in 2018. In the lead-up to writing “The Summer Pact,” I started to see suicide impact star athletes, like the soccer goalkeeper Katie Meyer from Stanford. There was a time when we thought that suicide only affected those who were visibly depressed, but it touches people who seem to have it all. With Summer, I thought it was important to create a character who seemed to have it all and whose struggles were hidden even from those who knew her best.

Summer is an all-American distance runner, a sport that is so mentally challenging. It’s typically distance runners, too, who can be hard-working perfectionists. I mean, who else would go out and run that kind of mileage? Having three distance runners for children who compete at high levels – my sons George and Edward compete in Division 1 at Columbia, and my daughter Harriet is a top runner in Georgia high school running– and witnessing the pressure they experience influenced my focus on mental health in distance running.

In the prologue, Tyson uses a David Foster Wallace quote in which he likens suicide to jumping off a burning building. He says, “It’s not that the person doesn’t fear falling – because he does – it’s just that falling feels less terrible than burning.” I think this so beautifully attempts to explain the profound pain that some people experience.

Summer’s death is such a tragic loss. It is a powerful reminder that you never really know what people are carrying on the inside, even if everything looks perfect on the outside. What other messages do you hope your readers will take away from this book?

I never write a book with a message in mind — it comes together as I write it. The major takeaway didn’t come to me until I wrote the trigger warning, which I articulated in my final words to my readers, especially those who are struggling, in my acknowledgments: “Life is tough. Life is messy. Life can be heartbreakingly cruel. You have helped me through some tough times, and I hope my stories have brought you a measure of comfort. I care about each and every one of you and wish you endless silver linings.”

That’s so beautiful.

Thank you. I hope to spread the message that we are not the sum of our achievements. Our accolades, like doing well in school or having a successful career, do not define us. Rather, we are the sum of our relationships. I hope readers of “The Summer Pact” realize that our friendships are the pieces that complete us. For many people, your friends are your found family who rescue you from dark places, which is very true in this book. I hope the story is a comfort to people, and that it helps them get through tough things, hard things.

As your Instagram followers know, you recently met Queen Camilla. Can you talk about the experience? And what influenced your love for the British Royal family?

My love of the Royals came from my mother, which she inherited from my great-grandmother (I wore my Mam-ma’s wedding ring when I met Queen Camilla). I have so much respect for what she is doing to support books and authors and reading via The Queen’s Reading Room. I told Camilla that it was an honor of a lifetime after I curtsied. And I meant it with every fiber of my being. The Royals are so much more than celebrities — they are living history. In the same way we study the House of Tudor, we will study the House of Windsor.

In the spirit of balancing light and dark, can we talk a little bit about Atlanta? Hannah is from the Buckhead area. Seeing her at iconic spots like Goldbergs and Le Bilboquet was so fun. What are your favorite book-related spots in Atlanta?

For dinner and to shop gorgeous coffee table books: Lucian Books & Wine .

Favorite bookstores: Virginia Highland Books and A Capella Books .

Favorite spots to write: Urban Grind and Momo Cafe .

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