Like his attempts to swim over the dark water of the river that lies between him and the object of his affections, twelve-year-old Dougaldo Montmigny struggles against oppression, homophobia and racism to realise his love for Tomahawk Clark, a thirteen-year-old Metis boy, during a summer destined to become a painful lesson on love and desire.

Like sailors becalmed on idyllic ships, this story is a subtle revelation of the emotional turmoil that lies beneath a bewitchingly deceptive picture of perfection. The Summer Between is a metaphor for the struggles and rewards of living where origins, tempests and landscape inform our collective soul.

In the spirit of Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha and Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story, readers will be moved by the touching circumstances of this innocent narrative. Lost in the torrent of fat, glitzy-covered commercial books that flood your favourite bookstore are quiet, charming novels like this one from Ontario's Andrew Binks. It's so tautly written and so direct in its narration, it makes the average bestseller seem flabby. ... The Summer Between succeeds as a low-key account of a boy testing his instincts and his upbringing in a natural but ever-more-complicated world.
-Dave Williamson, Prairie Fire