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The Swimmers

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The Swimmers

By: Julie Otsuka
Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the internationally best-selling 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 81 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.

©2022 Julie Otsuka (P)2022 Penguin Audio Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Inspiring Swimming

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Critic reviews

"Otsuka's keenly observed prose manages to capture whole histories in a sweep of gorgeous incantatory sentences." (Marie Claire)
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I didn't understand the disjointed flow of the book. I thought it would knit together at the end but it just ended abruptly. An unusual but quick read

Unusual

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Generally I will read and enjoy most things but I thoroughly disliked this book. Endless lists, a whole chapter of sentences starting with ‘she remembers “. I couldn’t finish it . Very disappointed in the story .

Most tedious book ever

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