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. 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.

Reviews

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 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 description

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.