Book cover of The Swimmers

Book description

From the internationally bestselling author of The Buddha in the Attic

Up above there are wildfires, smog alerts, epic droughts, paper jams, teachers' strikes, insurrections, revolutions, record-breaking summers of unendurable heat, but down below, at the pool, it is always a comfortable eighty-one degrees ...

Alice is one of a…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Swimmers as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a compelling look at aging and dementia through the eyes of a swimmer exploring her personal backstory in Japanese American incarceration camps. But it's also a fine set up for relationship conflict/love with her daughter. With a speculative imagination, Julie Otsuka spins a unique tale of heroism and literally propels us through with her beautiful writing just as the swimmers propel themselves through the pool.

I loved this book so much that after reading it, and returning it to the library, I wanted to buy my own copy. I wanted this book to sit on my shelf, right behind my desk, even if I never read it again, though I know I will.

The Swimmers is a book that swallowed me up into a world, which at first, I didn’t quite understand. Yet, I didn’t care. I would have gone anywhere that the author was taking me. The language carried me along, the voice touched me deeply, and finally, as the story became clear, broke…

If you love The Swimmers...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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