Swimming lessons 
by Claire Fuller
published by Fig Tree/Penguin, 2017	
 
My review:
The Sunday Times described a ‘singing simplicity’ in Claire Fuller’s first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days. This holds true for her second novel, Swimming lessons where it evokes the landscape of the sea that permeates this very accomplished and fine literary mystery: you smell the seaweed, you feel the pebbles on the beach and you experience the shock of the cold sea itself.
Gil, a successful but ageing writer, surrounded by piles of books he has collected, lives in a beautiful but rundown house by the sea, looked after by his older daughter, Nan. When he catches sight of Ingrid, his wife who has been missing, presumed dead for 12 years, his family gather round to support him. His younger daughter, Flora, who dotes on him, is determined to track down their mother – she has always felt a certain responsibility as she was the last person to see Ingrid before she disappeared from the beach.
The novel is plotted with two, alternating timelines: in the present day Flora tries to find out the truth about her father’s writing career, his complex relationships and what has happened to her mother. While in1992 her mother, Ingrid, writes letters to Gil telling the history of their marriage from her own point of view – from innocent, idealistic student, to disappointed, middle-aged mother. She hides each letter in one of his many books with the proviso that only he is to read them. Flora has no idea that the letters exist.
In both stories swimming in the sea is a major theme: for Ingrid it is therapy, an escape from domesticity, and from a marriage that has not been what she expected; for Flora swimming is a way of healing and for her to be close to her mother. Clare Fuller skilfully interweaves the strands to form a very satisfying novel that leaves the reader guessing right up to the end. 
Swimming lessons is a dissection of domestic relationships, sibling rivalry and friendships; it examines the long-lasting impact that mistakes and deceptions have on a family and friends. This novel is deftly plotted, beautifully written, moving, complex and intriguing. A book, like the sea, to immerse yourself in. 
Biography:
Claire Fuller has a first degree in sculpture which is evident in the fine detail she gives to physical descriptions of the natural world. She began writing when she was forty and has a Masters in Creative and Critical writing. Her debut novel Our Endless Numbered Days won the Desmond Elliot Prize for debut fiction in 2015, was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick for Spring 2016 as well as being shortlisted for other major prizes.
 
Notes:
Claire Fuller blogs on https://clairefuller.co.uk

Majestic, almost poetic prose, this story is told in the form of a present day narrative, and through the letters written by Ingrid in the past, inserted into the books around the house. These letters are the story of her marriage, and it is the mysterious relationship between Ingrid and Gil that weaves throughout time. At first we meet Gil who is the distant but present father to Flora and Nan, but through the letters we know that Ingrid has endured a period where Gil was missing from family life. It is this enigmatic tale of their love that is the essence of Swimming Lessons.

Ingrid went missing from a Dorset beach twelve years ago and is presumed to have drowned. She left behind her husband Gil, who is an author with one famous novel to his name, and their daughters Nan and Flora. Flora was only ten years old when her mother disappeared and has always believed that she's alive.
 
Gil thinks he sees Ingrid but then has an accident causing both daughters to return to the family home to look after him, his possible sighting is put down to old age and ill health.
 
The story is beautifully told, both in the present day and the past. The latter in the form of letters that Ingrid wrote to her husband and left hidden in the many books inside their house by the sea. Truths, infidelities and tragedies are gradually revealed and I was gripped. This was a clever way of letting us learn about the characters and their marriage and it worked extremely well.
 
I enjoyed the author's first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days and Swimming Lessons is even better.
 
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books (UK) for my review copy.

I found this book slow to start and for the first couple of chapters difficult to get in to because of the pace.

However, Im glad I stuck with it as this is a lovely book... an intriguing story line with well rounded characters.

The story focuses on Ingrid who has been missing for years, presumed drowned on one of her regular night swims.

The book jumps between the present day as Ingrids daughters and husband, Gil, come together as Gill is dying. We learn more about the lives of the daughters and how such a traumatic event, such as losing their mother, has fundamentally impacted on their life and personalities.

The story in the present is interspaced with letters written by Ingrid, just before she goes missing, which detail how she met Gil and her life with him. It becomes clear that life with Gill is not easy for Ingrid and the letters insinuate at many reasons for Ingrids disappearance... was it an accident, murder, suicide or perhaps she ran away.

These questions are never fully answered. Instead the reader is taken along a journey in which each of the characters either grows and matures looking towards the future or comes to terms with the past.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

What a great start of the year, I hope this book sets the tone for 2017. 
It was a compelling story about a family, and how sometimes love just isn't enough to mend people that are broken inside and to make everything alright. 
Gill and Ingrid tried to build a life together, sometimes based on truths, but mostly made from lies they told each other and themselves. 
In the end we get to know their story through her letters, hidden in his books, and it's sad and beautiful, like life. 
Recommended to everyone who enjoys a good story, a book that will not rest until the end.

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.

Set across two different time periods, when Gil and Ingrid were young and desperately in love then when they’re much older, with 2 children, Ingrid has been gone for years and Gil is an aging and ailing father, Swimming Lessons was a brilliant read. The past is described to us via letters from Ingrid to Gil, hiding them within the pages of his collection of thousands of books, detailing how they met, he her university lecturer, her a student with big plans that are thrown to the wind when she becomes pregnant. In the present, their daughters return home when their father is in an accident and he believes that moments before he falls, he saw their mother again. The reader discovers the answers alongside the characters as secrets from the past come to the surface – a mystery that’s beautifully written.
I read this in December, so this is my review of it! As soon as I saw the author, Claire Fuller, I knew I would enjoy this after reading Our Endless Numbered Days earlier in the year. Swimming Lessons was just as enchanting and bewitching. Definitely one to watch in 2017!