The Swimmers
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- £5.99
-
- £5.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
'Exquisite' The New York Times
'A tale of grief and memory awash with dark humour and wit' Spectator
____________________________________________________
"Up there," she says, "I'm just another little old lady. But down here, at the pool, I'm myself."
For the people who swim there each day, the local pool is a haven of unexpected kinship and private solace. For Alice, her daily laps have become the ritual that gives her life meaning, even though she may not remember the combination to her locker or where she put her towel.
But one day, a crack appears deep beneath the surface of the water, and then another, and then another. The pool must close for repairs, and with that Alice is plunged into dislocation and chaos.
Away from the steady routines of her swimming, she is engulfed by difficult memories of her own past. And as her sense of home, and of herself, slip further out of her grasp, her daughter must navigate the newly fractured landscape of their relationship.
From the internationally bestselling author of The Buddha in the Attic comes a novel about memory and loss, mothers and daughters, the stories that make up a life, and what happens when they start to unravel.
______________________________________________
'I'm in awe of how this beautiful, graceful novel can hold so much grief and loss and love in its pages: a literary gem.' Nicci Gerrard
'An unforgettable novel about mothers and daughters by a spellbinding talent' Daily Mail
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Otsuka (The Buddha in the Attic) delivers a quick and tender story of a group of swimmers who cope with the disruption of their routines in various ways. The regulars at a pool range in age, ability, and swimming habits, and are connected by an incessant need to swim. When a crack shows up in the deep end of lane four, the swimmers all grows nervous about the pool's future. While the "nonswimmers" in their lives (also known as "crack deniers") dismiss the swimmers' concerns, the swimmers collectively discover how the crack "quietly lodges itself, unbeknownst to you, in the recesses of your mind"—except for cheerful Alice, who has swum in the pool for 35 years and now has dementia. Some members stop going to the pool out of fear, while others try to get close to the crack. Just before the pool is closed, Alice determines to get in "Just one more lap." Otsuka cleverly uses various points of view: the swimmers' first-person-plural narration effectively draws the reader into their world, while the second person keenly conveys the experiences of Alice's daughter, who tries to recoup lost time with her mother after Alice loses hold of her memories and moves into a memory care facility. It's a brilliant and disarming dive into the characters' inner worlds.
