In this episode of History Through Fiction: The Podcast, Colin Mustful speaks with Kerri Maher, author of Summer of Love, about the myths and realities of the 1967 Bay Area counterculture. Through the lens of family, art, addiction, and reinvention, this conversation invites listeners to look beyond flower-crown nostalgia and into the emotional complexity of a turbulent era.

Together, they explore Maher’s dual-timeline novel, which follows two sisters pulled in different directions by the cultural upheavals of the late 1960s and a later-generation storyline shaped by questions of sobriety, memory, and healing. The discussion moves from Berkeley and San Francisco to Napa wine country, tracing how place, research, and lived family stories helped Maher create a world that feels both vivid and deeply human.

Kerri Maher i ...