The Swimmers

Books | Fiction / Literary

3.8

(65)

Julie Otsuka

From the internationally bestselling author of The Buddha in the Attic Up above there are wildfires, smog alerts, epic droughts, paper jams, teachers' strikes, insurrections, revolutions, record-breaking summers of unendurable heat, but down below, at the pool, it is always a comfortable eighty-one degrees ... Alice is one of a group of obsessed recreational swimmers for whom their local swimming pool has become the centre of their lives - a place of unexpected kinship, freedom, and ritual. Until one day a crack appears beneath its surface ... As cracks also begin to appear in Alice's memory, her husband and daughter are faced with the dilemma of how best to care for her. As Alice clings to the tethers of her past in a Home she feels certain is not her home, her daughter must navigate the newly fractured landscape of their relationship. A novel about mothers and daughters, grief and memory, love and implacable loss, The Swimmers is spellbinding, incantatory and unforgettable. The finest work yet from a true modern master. PRAISE FOR JULIE OTSUKA: "Otsuka's keenly observed prose manages to capture whole histories in a sweep of gorgeous incantatory sentences" Marie Claire "Powerfully moving . . . intensely lyrical . . . verges on the edge of poetry" Independent "A tender, nuanced, empathetic exploration of the sorrows and consolations of a whole generation of women" Telegraph

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More Details:

Author

Julie Otsuka

Pages

192

Publisher

Penguin Books Limited

Published Date

2022-02-22

ISBN

0241994292 9780241994290

Community ReviewsSee all

"The first half of the book was really boring and it was just a super long metaphor for the progressive disease of the main character. The second half was absolutely heart shattering. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book to anyone else because I think one of the reasons it was so impactful was how close it got to home. It felt like a combination of grandma and papa and I haven’t sobbed this hard at a book since a thousand splendid suns. I’d read the second half again. The writing style overall is amazing, and I like how personal it was."

Katie

"DNF after 100 pages. I couldn't handle the author's overuse of adjectives and under-devopment of plot. Also, her second person voice was such a turn off for me. I am a swimmer and wanted to like this, so it was a disappointment. "

Hillary Cargo

"DNF. I thought I would really like it after the first chapter but then I felt that it got repetitive and seemed like a lot of lists. "

Sarah Devlin

"Truly captivating. I felt caught up in the emotion of the characters, like i could feel the pain and suffering that they went through. This is not some happy novel that ends well. It is a gut-wrenching story about what it means to lose someone, mind body and sole. I loved this book and i think you will too."