The Gypsy Moth Summer Audiobook By Julia Fierro cover art

The Gypsy Moth Summer

A Novel

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

The Gypsy Moth Summer

By: Julia Fierro
Narrated by: Christa Lewis
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.62

Buy for $17.62

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

It is the summer of 1992 and a gypsy moth invasion blankets Avalon Island. Ravenous caterpillars disrupt early summer serenity on Avalon, an islet off the coast of Long Island - dropping onto novels left open on picnic blankets, crawling across the T-shirts of children playing games of tag and capture the flag. The caterpillars become a relentless topic of island conversation and the inescapable soundtrack of the season.

It is also the summer Leslie Day Marshall - only daughter of Avalon's most prominent family - returns with her husband, a botanist, and their children to live in "The Castle", the island's grandest estate. Leslie's husband Jules is African-American, and their children biracial, and islanders from both sides of the tracks form fast and dangerous opinions about the new arrivals.

Maddie Pencott LaRosa straddles those tracks: a teen queen with roots in the tony precincts of East Avalon and the crowded working class corner of West Avalon, home to Grudder Aviation factory, the island's bread-and-butter. Maddie falls in love with Brooks, Leslie's and Jules's son, and that love feels as urgent to Maddie as the questions about the new and deadly cancers showing up across the island. Could Grudder Aviation, the pride of the island - and its patriarch, the Colonel - be to blame?

©2017 Julia Fierro (P)2017 Tantor
Coming of Age Genre Fiction Women's Fiction

Critic reviews

"The novel's late depictions of Maddie's anxious relationship with her family hit hard, giving the narrative a savage momentum." ( New York Times)
All stars
Most relevant  
In this audible version, half the novel is missing. The written version has several more chapters and yet there is no indication that the audible is an abridged version.

Half the novel is missing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I was drawn in and got to know and like many of the characters only to have it end abruptly with no resolution to anything at all. What a let down!

Great read and very enjoyable characters, but the book feels like it was only half written!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

"Complete audiobook now available!!"
The audiobook was originally only 50% uploaded - hopefully earlier listeners will delete their original downloads and re-download the entire content.

The book is now available in its entirety

Complete audiobook now available!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

It ended in the middle of the story. So disappointed. I loved it till the end which really wasn’t the end.

What the heck

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.