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The second novel from the author of Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the 2015 Desmond Elliott Prize and was a 2016 Richard and Judy Book Club Pick.
'Thrilling, transporting, delicately realised and held together by a sophisticated sense of suspense ... more than matches the power of Fuller's debut ... Powerful, pleasing and pleasurable.' Sunday Times
'Gil Coleman looked down from the window and saw his dead wife standing on the pavement below.'
Gil's wife, Ingrid, has been missing, presumed drowned, for twelve years.
A possible sighting brings their children, Nan and Flora, home. Together they begin to confront the mystery of their mother. Is Ingrid dead? Or did she leave? And do the letters hidden within Gil's books hold the answer to the truth behind his marriage, a truth hidden from everyone including his own children?
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241252154
Number of pages: 304
Weight: 444 g
Dimensions: 222 x 144 x 29 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
A compelling portrait of a complicated, unconventional marriage, and of flawed humanity, with all its secrets, silences and deceits. Excellent.
* Mail on Sunday *It's the sharp eye for detail, sometimes bizarre, that makes her writing stand out . . . A story suffused with the poignancy of miscommunication between people who love each other, of the things we can never really know. * Guardian *
Claire Fuller has captured love in its fullest form, nursed on betrayal and regret and guilt . . . Swimming Lessons is so smoothly, beautifully written, and the human failures here are heartbreaking. * David Vann *
Bewitching and page-turning . . . an extraordinarily smart and satisfying read. * Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife *
With Swimming Lessons, Fuller confirms herself as a writer of emotional depth, technical skill and sensitive plotting . . . What Fuller evokes beautifully are the complicated dynamics between fathers and daughters, sisters, lovers, friends * Observer *
A deeply moving read, with a mystery that keeps you turning pages * Oprah.com *
Evocative, immersive * Sarah Vaughan, author of Anatomy of a Scandal *
Extraordinary...From the opening sentence it is gripping...Fuller writes with a singing simplicity that finds beauty amid the terror...might well have you crying out for more. * Sunday Times on Our Endless Numbered Days *
Bewitching...a rivetingly dark tale...spellbinding. * Sunday Express on Our Endless Numbered Days *
Fuller handles the tension masterfully in this grown-up thriller of a fairytale, full of clues, questions and intrigue. * The Times on Our Endless Numbered Days *
Fuller's twisted tale is compulsive, treading the fine line between charming and sinister. With its disturbing twist, Our Endless Numbered Days could well become a classic. * Stylist, 'Book Wars' on Our Endless Numbered Days *
Rewardingly unsettling...as warped and sinister as any Brothers Grimm fairytale, this tautly written, tense novel is brilliant at evoking both the bewitching beauty of its setting - and its inherent dangers...haunting, suspenseful and deftly written...memorably chilling. * Metro on Our Endless Numbered Days *
A debut novel that brings to mind such unlikely bedfellows as Thoreau's Walden and Emma Donoghue's Room...gripping. * Guardian on Our Endless Numbered Days *
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“Beautiful and often times heartbreaking.”
Swimming Lessons is a character-driven novel about a family, a love, a marriage, and how hope can be the worst thing sometimes. Here, the hope of Gil Coleman and his daughters, Nan and Flora, has haunted the family... More
“Swimming Lessons is a bewitching and original story”
I was so impressed by Claire Fuller's debut novel, Our Endless Numbered Days. I read it pre-publication and I was delighted when it went on to be such a huge success, and won the Desmond Elliott Book Prize 2015.... More
“Not Waving But Drowning”
'Swimming Lessons' is the second novel from the award winning Claire Fuller and concerns the deceits and concealments that families deal in, much to everyone's detriment. I have long accepted the notion... More
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