Novelist Elin Hilderbrand on the Distinct Joys of the American Summer

American summers are as diverse as the country we live in. For some, summer means camping in Sequoia National Park; for others, it’s Disney World; and for yet others, it’s a backyard cookout with burgers, deviled eggs, Popsicles, and sparklers. Summertime means walking barefoot in fresh-cut grass, wearing seersucker to the office on Fridays, waiting for the lifeguard’s whistle to mark the start of adult swim, planning a tee time for after work.

On the shores of Lake Tahoe at the Cal-Neva Lodge, famously owned by Frank Sinatra (along with Dean Martin and mobster Sam Giancana) and later by Larry Ellison, Slim Aarons 1959

Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

As the old Gershwin tune goes, “Summertime an’ the livin’ is easy.” It certainly felt that way during those long-ago summers on the Cape when I would go to bed with sunburned shoulders and sand in the sheets. But what I’ve learned in the 40-plus years since is that summer is also evanescent. The morning we packed up the station wagon to leave the Cape and head back to our real lives, I started to cry: Please, can’t we stay? My father put his arm around my shoulder and whispered in my ear. “The reason summertime is special,” he said, “is because it always ends.” I climbed into the backseat of the car, letting that bittersweet truth sink in.

An eight-episode television adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s best-selling novel The Five-Star Weekend, set on Nantucket and starring Jennifer Garner, Regina Hall, and Chloë Sevigny, premieres July 9, 2026, on Peacock. A special release of her 2023 book, tied to the show, is out now. Hilderbrand, considered the queen of the beach read, has written 32 novels over the past 26 years. The Thoroughbreds, which was cowritten with her daughter, Shelby Cunningham, will be published this September. This article appeared in the July/August 2026 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.