Bummer Camp: A Novel

Two sisters scramble to save their family’s legacy in a funny, huge-hearted novel about grandiose plans and summers to remember by the author of I Thought You Said This Would Work.

Cat McCarthy has spent years extricating herself from the family business—an increasingly run-down theater camp—and all the drama contained within it. At thirty-seven, she’s putting the final touches on a new life as she renovates her dream cottage and awaits her first child. Does it worry her that the McCarthy legacy is in the hands of her disastrously irresponsible sister, Ginger? Sure. But the camp’s not Cat’s problem anymore.

Then a series of frantic text messages pulls Cat back to center stage. Ginger has handed the reins to a crackpot motivational speaker, Bob Durand, and his scheming wife, Elaine. The couple’s plan to rebrand the camp as a “rehab” for anxious adults has nearly bankrupted the McCarthys. And now the Durands have skipped town days before investors arrive for a fundraising gala that could determine the camp’s future.

As Cat and Ginger wrangle a cast of lovable misfits and underdogs to save the camp, the sisters rediscover the importance of family, belonging, and holding fast to sweet summer memories.