From the first brief chapters of deborah levys spare, disturbing. The short novel deals with the experiences of poet joe jacobs, when his family vacation is interrupted by a fanatical reader. Reading deborah levy s swimming home is as unsettling as skating across a thinly frozen pond. Deborah levy frsl born 6 august 1959 is a british novelist, playwright and poet. Swimming home spins a richly plotted, darkly humorous, and disturbing tale of psychological unraveling.
The story of this books circles around nine different characters and view points. Swimming home book hennepin county library bibliocommons. Unfortunately for the characters, and luckily for the reader, the wife who has leased the vacation house in swimming home doesnt appear to think so. Swimming home by levy, deborah and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. Swimming home by deborah levy, first edition abebooks. They discover a stranger in their swimming pool, kitty finch, and isabel, one of the main characters invites kitty to stay in their spare room. Oct 16, 2012 swimming home is unlike anything but itself. Profound and thrilling, swimming home reveals how the most devastating secrets are. As he arrives with his family at the villa in the hills above nice, joe sees a body in the swimming pool. Swimming home is a subversive pageturner, a merciless gaze at t. The familiar elements in swimming home are a middleclass holiday, two families. From the first brief chapters of deborah levys spare, disturbing and frequently funny novel. Oct 07, 2011 w ith her first novel in 15 years, deborah levy has taken worn structures and made something strange and new. Readers will have to resist the temptation to hurry up in order to find out what happens.
Critical reception for the novel was generally favourable. Witty and poignant, its pages melt away like an unsettling yet familiar dream. The harvard classics shelf of fiction complete 20 volumes. Buy a cheap copy of swimming home book by deborah levy. Swimming home book jefferson county public library. Check out other translated books in french, spanish languages.
She is the author of highly praised novels, including beautiful mutants, swallowing geography, and billy and girl. In swimming home, home is elusive, safety is unlikely, and the reader closes the book both satisfied and unnerved. Swimming home by deborah levy 2012, paperback for sale. Swimming home is a novel by british writer deborah levy, published on 10 september 2012. It is one that had been on my radar for a while and hearing deborah levy speak was the prompt to read it. In this novel, home is elusive, safety is unlikely, and the reader closes the book both satisfied and unnerved.
It is set in a french villa where two couples are sharing a holiday together. And she swims daily at her gym and in hampstead heaths ponds in summer. Our reward is the enjoyable, if unsettling, experience of being pitched into the deep waters of levys wry, accomplished novel. Swimming home deborah levy, 2011 bloomsbury usa 176 pp. Abigail deutsch, tls deborah levy has made something strange and new spiky and unsettling. The central character is a beautiful girl who is unstable and anorexic, who often wanders around naked and is an agent of change for a family holidaying in a french vacation house.
Swimming home starts like your typical holiday mansion murder. Her more recent fiction has included the bookershortlisted novels swimming. The original of this novel was the saddest story, but after the world war i. At their villa, they find a body in the swimming pool. I abandoned swimming home about twothirds into reading it.
Swimming home, her most recent novel, was serialized on bbc radio 4 as a book at bedtime and was shortlisted for the man booker prize. A mysterious woman who suffers from mental illness suddenly appears at a vacation villa where two families are staying and her interactions with them reveal secret details about their past and tensions within their relationships with each other. Levys elegant language and subtle, uncanny plot are strictly adult fare. Swimming home is a subversive pageturner, a merciless gaze at the insidious harm that depression can have on apparently stable, wellturnedout people. The new york times levy winds her characters up and watches them go, and they do as most humans do, which is to mess up in the face of desire. Mccarthy, tom int, isbn 162040169x, isbn 9781620401699, brand new, free shipping in the us a mysterious woman who suffers from mental illness suddenly appears at a vacation villa where two families are staying and her interactions with them reveal secret details about their past and tensions within their relationships with each other. Deborah levy it is my second deborah levy book, hot milk being the first. Mccarthy, tom int, isbn 162040169x, isbn 9781620401699, brand new, free shipping in the us a mysterious woman who suffers from mental illness suddenly appears at a vacation villa where two families are staying and her interactions with them reveal secret details about their past and tensions within their. Swimming home is definitely a work of literary fiction, as style and characterisations are more important than the plot. Pdf swimming home book by deborah levy free download 165. Yet levy s little book while it may not have won is a potent thing, with a power to unsettle thats entirely disproportionate to. Swimming home represents a new direction for a major writer.
Oct 30, 2012 deborah levys swimming home, also shortlisted this year, comes in at 176 pages a diminutive thing compared to mantels hefty historical novel. A poet, his wife, her daughter and their friends arrive at the french riviera. Philip womack is gripped by deborah levys swimming home, shortlisted for the 2012 man booker prize, an original take on the middleclass villa holiday novel. Deborah levy s writing combines linguistic virtuosity, technical brilliance and a strong sense of what it means to be alive. Swimming home by deborah levy farm lane books blog. Oct 30, 2012 a subversively brilliant study of love, swimming home reveals how the most devastating secrets are the ones we keep from ourselves. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grownup, the fright and sickness that humans and their. Set in a summer villa, the story is tautly structured, taking place over a single week in which a group of beautiful, flawed tourists in the french riviera come loose at the seams. The book is strikingly imagistic, and we were all agreed that it created rich pictures in the mind of the reader, but. The main characters of this fiction, literary fiction story are. Enter your mobile number or email address below and well send you a link to download the free kindle app. Yet levys little book while it may not have won is a potent thing, with a power to unsettle thats entirely disproportionate to its size. Precise, concise, decisive sentences trap the reader.
At first sight it appears to be a book about a family on holiday in france. Levy sets her novel, which spans merely eight days saturday to saturday in. Deborah levy s new book swimming home is constructed like a play with a central stage and a cast of characters, and it unfolds like a. At the centre is poet joejozef jacobs, whose sketchy, hidden history, as a jewish child. Instead of being transported to nice, i was constantly analyzing the character development, word choice, and turn of phrase.
Signin to download and listen to this audiobook today. Pdf swimming home by deborah levy download pdf free ebook. Naomi benaron talks with deborah levy naomi benaron, whose bellwether prize winning first novel, running the rift, is set during the rwandan genocide, chats with deborah levy about her latest novel, swimming home. You know you will fall through, tumbling into the deep, murky waters below the storys surface, but you are never sure exactly when or how. Deborah levy is a british novelist, short story writer, playwright and poet, whose proficiency across multiple literary forms marks her out as one of the great contemporary literary figures. The independent uk swimming home is a beautiful, delicate book underpinned by a complexity that only reveals itself slowly to the. The familiar elements in swimming home are a middleclass holiday, two families sharing a villa, and a stranger coming into their lives. Deborah levys new book swimming home is constructed like a. Its a very hot milk was one of my favourite reads of last year, so i was beyond delighted to discover that i had on my bookshelves another levy novel and one that was nominated for the man booker prize, no less.
Swimming home by deborah levy abebooks passion for books. Levy is a stealthy storyteller, lulling us while busy scattering clues. The novel is told using a series of flashbacks in nonchronological order. And her latest novel, swimming home, is steeped in freudian notions of desire and dread.
Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. The book was published in multiple languages including english, consists of 165 pages and is available in paperback format. Swimming home is told from multiple viewpoints and several generations. Swimming home audiobook by deborah levy, tom mccarthy. Kitty finch claims to be a botanist but she really is not.
Swimming home by deborah levy, first edition abebooks passion for books. This is a short novel by deborah levy, coming in at what appears to be 157 pages, including hilariously two page 156s. The good soldier is a novel written by an english novelist, ford madox ford. Swimming home by deborah levy clare suggested this 2012 bookershortlisted novel in which a group holidaying in a villa near nice poet and philanderer joe jacobs, his war correspondent wife isabel, their fourteenyearold daughter nina and their two friends laura and mitchell is disrupted by the unexpected arrival of a stranger. Get this book free when you sign up for a 30day trial. A novel by levy, deborah and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. The books title, she tells me, was inspired by john cheevers story the swimmer, in. Swimming home deborah levy 9781620401699 netgalley. When it comes to language, levy has an eye for the aesthetic. Sep 20, 2012 but i am not sure that any of these quite capture deborah levy s imagination or explain swimming home, which at one point she sums up to me, perfectly, as a pageturner about sorrow.
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of swimming home by deborah levy, read by sophie ward. Not only is the novel an exploration of a seemingly failing marriage. The good soldier ebook by ford madox ford rakuten kobo. Soon after, her early novels were reissued by penguin books. Free download or read online swimming home pdf epub book. A novel 2012 paperback and read by levy, deborah swimming home. Allusive, elliptical and disturbingoften funny and always acuteswimming home reminded me of virginai woolfs mrs. With her first novel in 15 years, deborah levy has taken worn structures and made something strange and new. Swimming home by deborah levy is another book i bought as a result of attending a literary event earlier in the year. Deborah levys writing combines linguistic virtuosity, technical brilliance and a strong sense of what it means to be alive. The pervading scent of menace in this novel is overpowering and disquieting. None is prepared for the sight of a woman is it a bear. The first edition of the novel was published in october 6th 2011, and was written by deborah levy.
Written by deborah levy, tom mccarthy introduction, audiobook narrated by nicola barber. A novel and millions of other books are available for instant access. Levy has been shortlisted for the man booker prize twice, for swimming home and hot milk. Her work has been staged by the royal shakespeare company and broadcast on the bbc. A subversively brilliant study of love, swimming home reveals how the most devastating secrets are the ones we keep from ourselves. The short novel deals with the experiences of poet joe jacobs. John self, the guardian swimming home is as sharp as a wasp sting. When kitty finch shows up at the door of a famous british poets tony vacation getaway in the south of france, she makes quite an impression. Donal ryans latest novel, from a low and quiet sea, is a single malt whiskey, short and potent, infused with a warmth i felt in my body. Pdf swimming home book by deborah levy free download.
Deborah levy s swimming home, also shortlisted this year, comes in at 176 pages a diminutive thing compared to mantels hefty historical novel. Sunday times deborah levy has made something strange and new. Reading deborah levys swimming home is as unsettling as skating across a thinly frozen pond. The guardian deborah levy has made something strange and new. In this book, the wildness and the danger are all the more powerful for resting just beneath the surface. Intriguing cover, setting, a good read for summer pro. Aug 07, 2012 philip womack is gripped by deborah levy s swimming home, shortlisted for the 2012 man booker prize, an original take on the middleclass villa holiday novel.
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