YOU Reading Group: Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

THE STORY 

Washed-up novelist Gil Coleman, whose wife Ingrid is presumed to have drowned 12 years ago, is looking out of the first-floor window of a bookshop when he is convinced he spots her standing on the pavement below. Could she still be alive? By the time he makes it out of the shop she has disappeared, but the episode is the beginning of an enthralling exploration of their life together and what really happened.

The truth unfolds in a series of confessional letters that Ingrid writes to Gil in the month before she vanishes but never sends, and in the story of their two antagonistic daughters, now in their 20s, who are united when Gil ends up in hospital. Their mother was an idealistic university student in the 1970s when she fell for Gil, a professor twice her age. Despite being warned against the relationship by her best friend Louise, Ingrid marries him within months of their first meeting. Only later does she find out what he’s really like and the compromises she has to suffer.

THE TASTER 

Love, loss, betrayal and a mystery at the heart of a broken family 

‘I can imagine.’ Louise crossed her legs – in tan tights although it was summer – and folded her arms. ‘You’re unhappy, you regret what you’ve done, but now you’re stuck. You didn’t get your degree and you’re financially dependent on a man. You have a baby, but no money and nowhere to go. You live in the back of beyond and you have nothing to fill your time or your mind except nappies and breastfeeding.’ I shook my head, starting to interrupt, but Louise hadn’t finished.

THE AUTHOR 

Claire Fuller began writing fiction in her 40s. ‘I’ve always been a reader, but it never occurred to me I could also be a writer,’ she says. Her debut novel Our Endless Numbered Days won the prestigious Desmond Elliott Prize in 2015. Claire writes exclusively about the background to Swimming Lessons, her second novel, at youreadinggroup.co.uk, where you will also find suggested topics for your own book club discussion.

Buy the book – and save 20 per cent

Swimming Lessons is published by Penguin, price £8.99. To order a copy for £7.19 until 11 March, go to you-bookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640; free p&p on orders over £15.

 

 



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