Swimming Lessons

(Paperback)

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Description

The new novel from the author of the Richard & Judy Book Club Pick Our Endless Numbered Days 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 realizing that the answers she's looking for are hidden in the books that surround her.

Reviews

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 *
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 *

Author Bio

Claire 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. Her first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, won the Desmond Elliott Prize. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children.