SNOW IN JULY
by Heather Barbieri

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Erin Mulcahy has grown up in her older sister Meghan’s shadow: not quite as pretty, smart or dynamic. Just as Erin is on the verge of fulfilling her dream of going away to art school, Meghan, a single mother with a five-year-old daughter and an infant, roars back into their hometown of Butte, Montana, in a summer snowstorm, and Erin must put her plans on hold.

Meghan, still beautiful and magnetic, is addicted: to men, drugs and danger. She is the world’s “most frequent flier,” taking her children, Erin and their widowed mother, Finola, along for a turbulent ride that is, by turns, darkly humorous and harrowing. Meghan promises once again to reform, but can she be believed? Or is it up to Erin and her mother to give the children the only safe haven they’ve ever known?

Praise & Reviews

“Answers the question of how to forgive the people who hurt you most.”

—Glamour 



“Good-hearted…Barbieri’s insights into family dynamics are solid and true.”

—Washington Post



“A powerful debut.”

—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Snow in July, Heather Barbieri’s searing debut, is the story of a determined mother and her two daughters, devoted Erin and wayward Meghan, a charming and irresistible addict with two innocent children. Erin needs all her strength to practice tough love—a path that turns out to be very tough indeed. In Barbieri’s wise and writerly hands, we can see all our own beloved mistakes and why we made them.”
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

“A stark and powerful portrait of a family flawed by addiction and betrayal; a family redeemed by love. Heather Barbieri writes with raw honesty and true compassion. This is a novel that stays with you well beyond the last page.”
—Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of An Almost Perfect Moment

“The complicated love between sisters is vividly explored in Heather Barbieri’s debut novel, Snow in July. Set against the wide-open space of Montana, worlds collide as the complexities of family love are tested and heart-wrenching decisions must be made. An affecting story about courage and conviction, of having to let go in order to find your way back again.”
—Gail Tsukiyama, author of Dreaming Water