Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2017
304 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
From the author of the award-winning and word-of-mouth sensation Our Endless Numbered Days comes an exhilarating literary mystery that will keep readers guessing until the final page.
Ingrid Coleman writes letters to her husband, Gil, about the truth of their marriage, but instead of giving them to him, she hides them in the thousands of books he has collected over the years. When Ingrid has written her final letter she disappears from a Dorset beach, leaving behind her beautiful but dilapidated house by the sea, her husband, and her two daughters, Flora and Nan.
Twelve years later, Gil thinks he sees Ingrid from a bookshop window, but he's getting older and this unlikely sighting is chalked up to senility. Flora, who has never believed her mother drowned, returns home to care for her father and to try to finally discover what happened to Ingrid. But what Flora doesn't realize is that the answers to her questions are hidden in the books that surround her. Scandalous and whip-smart, Swimming Lessons holds the Coleman family up to the light, exposing the mysterious truths of a passionate and troubled marriage.
"Fuller successfully creates two discomfiting narratives, a strong backdrop for the story's essential mystery." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Fuller proves to be a master of temporal space, taking readers through flashbacks and epistolary chapters at a pace timed to create wonder and suspense. It's her beautiful prose, though, that rounds this one out, as she delves deeply to examine the legacies of a flawed and passionate marriage." - Booklist
"Saving the best for last with revelations and surprises, Fuller's well-crafted, intricate tale captures the strengths and shortcomings of ordinary people to show how healing is possible by confronting the darkest places." - Library Journal
"Simmering with tension, this tragic, albeit imperfect, mystery is sure to keep readers inching off their seats." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about Swimming Lessons was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
For first degree, Claire Fuller studied sculpture at Winchester School of Art. She began writing fiction at the age of 40, after many years working as a co-director of a marketing agency, she received a Masters degree (distinction) in Creative and Critical Writing from The University of Winchester.
Claire is the author of Unsettled Ground (2021), winner of the Costa Novel Award and shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, Bitter Orange (2018), Swimming Lessons (2017), which was shortlisted for the Encore Prize for second novels, and Our Endless Numbered Days (2015) which won the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction. She live near Winchester, England with her husband and a cat called Alan, and has two grown-up children.
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