The Summer Wives

The novel’s setting of Winthrop Island is inspired by the real Fishers Island, a small, exclusive enclave in the Long Island Sound. In her author’s note, Beatriz Williams confirms this connection, citing the island’s “unique and somewhat secretive microculture” as a direct influence (369). Her fictional name derives from the Connecticut Colony governor who originally obtained a grant for the island in 1640, John Winthrop, whose family owned the island until 1863. The treacherous waters surrounding the island are also a key feature in the novel. The real Fishers Island sits at the edge of a turbulent strait known as “The Race,” where powerful tidal currents create dangerous navigational challenges.

Located politically in New York but physically closer to Connecticut, Fishers Island has long been a private summer retreat for America’s old-money elite, with a year-round population of a few hundred swelling to around 2,000 in the summer. The island, originally settled for farming and later industrial purposes, eventually became used primarily as a holiday destination. The harbor is still a feature of its economy; however, by the 2000s, approximately 80% of residences on the island were seasonal homes. This unique socioeconomic landscape lends to the atmosphere of the novel, which takes inspiration from the many “old-money” families who have summered there, such as the Rockefellers and the Roosevelts in the 20th century.

The island, and the rest of the coastline of New England, was also key in smuggling alcohol during the Prohibition era between 1920 and 1933. During Prohibition, large ships laden with alcohol from Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe would anchor in international waters just beyond the three-mile U.S. jurisdictional limit. This floating line of vessels, particularly prominent off the coasts of New Jersey and Long Island, became known as “Rum Row.” To get the illicit cargo ashore, smugglers relied on smaller, faster “contact boats,” often operated by local fishermen who knew the coastlines intimately. These boatmen would race out to Rum Row, purchase liquor, and ferry it back to secluded coves and hidden docks, evading the Coast Guard. This history influences the narratives of several characters in the novel, adding secrets to the landscape they inhabit.