Claire Fuller: The swimming lessons, Fig Tree (Penguin Random House UK), 9780241252178, Trade Paperback

Not many books stay with you after you have finished reading.  “The Swimming Lessons” by Claire Fuller falls into that category.  This emotional, gentle book retelling the story of a family set somewhere along the English coast touched me deeply.  Claire Fuller is a first rate storyteller and her language is exquisite. I really fell in love with the characters, the story and the writing – if you are looking for a non-soapy family story, this is my choice.

The book opens with this sentence: “Gil Coleman looked down from the first floor window of the bookshop and saw his dead wife standing on the pavement.” 

And from there I was hooked, taking in the story the Coleman family, Gil, the professor and famous writer, Ingrid, former student of Gil’s  and mother to  Flora and Nan who gave up a promising career after falling in love with her professor and becoming pregnant.  A phone call from her sister Nan calls Flora back to their family house by the sea as their father had an accident.   It becomes clear that their aging father collapsed injuring himself after having run after what he thought was his dead wife Ingrid. 

Having two story lines running parallel is not a novel concept but Claire Fuller does it brilliantly. From the present situation it becomes clear that Ingrid disappeared one day never to be found, presumed drowned as she was very fond of swimming in the sea in all kinds of weathers and seasons.  Gil never recovered from this tragedy and her death pretty much destroyed the family. What makes this book so unusual is the second story line, Ingrid’s letters to her husband over the years of her marriage, never to be mailed but hidden in books of her husband’s extensive library.

Through these letters the story of their marriage and love eventually unfolds, adding one piece of the puzzle after another, shedding light on the reason why Ingrid might have disappeared.