The Swimmers

Her wisdom is staggeringly beautiful, implicating each of us

Her wisdom is staggeringly beautiful, implicating each of us

Here comes the new Julie Otsuka novel, so we can begin to live again

Heartbreaking and astoundingly good

I'm in awe of how this beautiful, graceful novel can hold so much grief and loss and love in its pages: a literary gem.

'If it wasn't tragedy it would be comedy, and it nimbly treads the very narrow line between'

'One of the marvels of The Swimmers is its unshowy portrayal of the immense drama inherent in losing the mind before the body has expired. But perhaps even more impressive is its respect for the general confusion of living'

Poignant and funny, I've never read such a brilliant account of this devastating illness, nor for that matter of the compulsive nature of swimming lengths in a pool.

"The Swimmers" is an exquisite companion. Though it doesn't answer the unanswerable, the novel's quiet insistence resonates: that it is our perfectly ordinary proclivities that make us who we are.

An unforgettable novel about mothers and daughters by a spellbinding talent

Stylistically ambitious and deeply moving

Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. She pursued a career as a painter for several years before turning to fiction writing at age 30. She is the author of When the Emperor Was Divine , which was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, The Buddha in the Attic , which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2012, and The Swimmers. She is a recipient of the Asian American Literary Award, France's Prix Femina Étranger, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She lives in New York City.