A charming story about growing up, changing and coming to terms with shifting family relationships.
Carolina (who likes to be known as Carol) is twelve and she’s worried about moving to junior high at the end of the summer. However, she has a more pressing issue to deal with – the fact that her family are upping sticks for the summer to move to her grandfather’s ranch to prepare it for sale as his developing dementia leaves him unable to care for himself safely.
Initially this felt like it would be a rather earnest read, with a lot of effort going into talking about dementia and the impact it has on Serge. There was a lot of time spent talking about the family’s Mexican roots, that they seemed to abandon until their return to the ranch.
My first impressions of Serge and the ranch were wholly negative. The drought meant everything was on its last legs-perhaps in a symbiotic relationship with the grandfather.
Anyway, Carol is reminiscent of her grandmother Rosa, so she strikes up a bond with her grandfather. He tells her stories about bees taking the water from the lake after the townspeople chopped down a tree that grew by its shores. Carol can’t tell what is story, what is a product of her grandfather’s dementia and what might be based in fact.
As the story progresses we see Carol grow as a person. Her summer was nothing like she envisaged it, but it’s a moving story with a happy ending (of sorts).