{"product_id":"swimming-lessons-isbn-9781941040515","title":"Swimming Lessons","description":"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.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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 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.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e Booklist\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ingrid is a brave but floundering heroine who puts down \"all the things [she hasn't] been able to say in person\" in her letters, resulting in a portrait so intimate, you feel as if you've read a novel written on the secret walls of her very mind. A deeply moving read, with a mystery that keeps you turning pages.\" — \u003cb\u003eOprah.com, Editor's Pick\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"As in her gorgeously harrowing \u003ci\u003eOur Endless Numbered Days\u003c\/i\u003e, Claire Fuller returns to the territory of a mother’s disappearance and a father’s lies with bewitching and page-turning results. If anything, \u003ci\u003eSwimming Lessons\u003c\/i\u003e is an even more complex puzzle box of a book, excavating darkly knotted family secrets, intricately cruel betrayals and layers of ambiguous loss. Fuller is so clear eyed, poised and psychologically shrewd in the unfolding of her tale, you will be kept guessing until the final penetrating sentence. An extraordinarily smart and satisfying read.\"— \u003cb\u003ePaula McLain, author of THE PARIS WIFE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Playing out the various scenarios is almost like a “choose your own adventure” story for adults. For me, Ingrid’s story, voice, and perspective, makes for a haunting, motivating, and fantastic read.\" — \u003cb\u003eSteph Opitz, Book of the Month Club Selection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Swimming Lessons\u003c\/i\u003e continues Claire Fuller’s mastery of beautiful language and heartbreaking imagery, which lays bare the stories of infidelities, lies, revivals of love and then demise of those loves.  The women of this novel fight for their very souls, and their stories unfurl like flags of independence appearing in to wave from her landscape of great books and art and hope.\" — \u003cb\u003eSusan Straight, author of BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HERE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Claire Fuller has captured love in its fullest form, nursed on betrayal and regret and guilt. Gil cheats on and abandons his wife too many times, until she disappears, leaving her clothing on the beach, and he can't know even if she's still alive. She leaves only letters, hidden in a great library of books, and he'll search for her until his end. \u003ci\u003e Swimming Lessons \u003c\/i\u003e is so smoothly, beautifully written, and the human failures here are heartbreaking.\"— \u003cb\u003eDavid Vann, author of AQUARIUM\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Claire Fuller's acrobatic new novel, about a family who has failed each other, inverts our expectations of narrative time to an astonishing effect: our experience of grasping for truth about those who have left is just as pained and urgent as her characters'. Fuller's sentences are condensed maps of the human process, unfolding in patterns we immediately recognize.\" — \u003cb\u003eKathleen Alcott, author of INFINITE HOME\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Swimming Lessons\u003c\/i\u003e hovers in the electric space between secrets and connection, between the desire to love and urge to hide. This is a biting, soaring novel.\" — \u003cb\u003eRamona Ausubel, author of SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF EASE AND PLENTY\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Eloquent, harrowing, raw . . . sure to keep readers inching off their seats.\" —\u003cb\u003e \u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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.\" —\u003cb\u003e \u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Like Fuller’s stunning debut, \u003ci\u003eSwimming Lessons\u003c\/i\u003e is a story suffused with the poignancy of miscommunication between people who love each other, of the things we can never really know.\" — \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This would be a perfect book club pick, as it’s a short novel that says a lot, and there’s plenty to unpack.\" —\u003cb\u003e Book Riot\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Fuller has written a profound portrait of marriage, motherhood, and loss. It is a beautiful, devastating book.\" —\u003cb\u003e Powell's Pick of the Month\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Claire Fuller’s newest book is a kind of love letter to the complicated relationships that are part of the real world rather than the romantic fiction we build in our minds.\" —\u003cb\u003e Read It Forward\u003c\/b\u003eClaire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written two other novels, Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, and Swimming Lessons. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children.","brand":"Tin House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233599762661,"sku":"NP9781941040515","price":25.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781941040515.jpg?v=1767737680","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/swimming-lessons-isbn-9781941040515","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}