As Julia Harrison’s first summer living in Ontario approached, she became aware of the culture of the cottage. While friends and family talked of nothing but languid afternoons on the dock and bartered for as many lakeside days as possible, Harrison marveled at the less attractive components of cottage life: the clogged highways en route and the unrelenting investment of money and labour that the idyllic escapes demanded.

Curious about the rich and passionate meaning these places seemed to hold, Harrison studied cottagers in the Haliburton region over the course of seven years. Thoughtfully and engagingly written, A Timeless Place considers the cottage family as a place where memories are treasured, national identity is celebrated, spiritual balance is restored, and even a few dark secrets are kept.