Swimming Lessons - Hardcover

Fuller, Claire

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241252156 ISBN 13: 9780241252154

Publisher: Fig Tree, 2017

Synopsis

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?

About this title

Review

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)

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)

From the Back Cover

'Gil Coleman looked down from the window and saw his dead wife standing on the pavement below.'

Ingrid writes letters to her husband Gil about their life together. But instead of giving them to him, she hides each in the thousands of books Gil has collected. Despite their two daughters, despite their beautiful but dilapidated house by the sea, despite Gil's talent as a writer, their marriage has been troubled. When Ingrid has written her final letter she disappears from a Dorset beach.

Twelve years later her adult daughter Flora comes home to look after her injured father. Secretly, Flora has never believed that her mother is dead, and she starts asking questions, without realising that the answers she's looking for are hidden in the books that surround her.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fig Tree
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0241252156
• ISBN 13: 9780241252154
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304