Grace Cleave, 30 and unmarried, is a writer living in London, far from her native New Zealand. She is uneasy about leaving her flat, for "journeys were not simple matters for Grace; nothing is simple if your mind is a fetch-and-carry wanderer from sliced perilous outer world to secret safe inner world." So when Phillip Thirkettle, who once interviewed her for a magazine, invites her to stay with his family for the weekend, Grace can't help but worry about it:

"I can't survive the weekend, I can't go among people for three whole days, talking to them, sharing meals with them, having to decide when to join them and when to leave them alone, when to go to bed, when to get up."

"Yes. M-m-m-m-m, she said, making a stupid noise as if she were eating cake. She cleared her throat, and stared, trying to put an intelligent expression on her face, as if she were 'taking in the effect'."

Author Janet Frame, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia which was later discovered – after years in psychiatric hospitals and electric shock treatments – to have been a misdiagnosis, felt that Towards Another Summer was too personal to be published in her lifetime. She wrote it after her own writer’s block and a weekend stay with friends. Towards Another Summer is an exploration of the idea of home, and of belonging. It is lyrical and overflows with emotions. I went into this book knowing nothing about Janet Frame’s life, but when I finished the book, I was intrigued by Frame and her writing, and could not wait to read more of her work, and of her life.