The Swimmer - Hardcover

Tearne, Roma

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0753187620 ISBN 13: 9780753187623

Publisher: Isis Large Print, 2011

Synopsis

43-year-old Ria is used to being alone. All her life, she has struggled to form a meaningful relationship with any man. Her existence is a solitary one - until she discovers the swimmer. It is midnight when she first sees him, across the river. His name is Ben and he is a Sri Lankan doctor, awaiting a decision from the Home Office on his asylum application. He is also 18 years Ria's junior but despite this, their friendship steadily grows. At first, she resists anything more than his companionship, but in the long summer days that follow they are irresistibly drawn to each other. Then tragedy strikes, and in an act of violence Ria's life is changed forever.

About this title

About the Author

Roma Tearne fled Sri Lanka at the age of ten, travelling to Britain where she has spent most of her life. She gained her Master's degree at the Ruskin Shool of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, and was Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. She was recently awarded a fellowship in the visual arts by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain. She lives and works in Oxford.

Review

`A tender, unconventional love story unfolds, until tragedy intervenes...Tearne's descriptions of the wide Suffolk skies are breathtaking; she has a wonderful ability to create atmosphere' The Times`Broodingly atmospheric...Roma Tearne is one of those writers who manage to interweave the political and personal to tremendous effect...Tearne captures a shifting social and political landscape and questions notions of home and homeland...[she] draws her characters with an artist's precision... her extraordinary book offers a rare insight into the subtle and dramatic ways we are shaped by conflict, and how our personal lives can be overtaken by political forces' Independent`Topical themes such as the war on terror and the treatment of asylum seekers are cleverly presented against a background of love, grief and guilt; all this is drawn together by a theme of belonging...this is beautifully atmospheric writing, deeply moving and thought-provoking' Books Quarterly (Waterstones)`A lyrical tale of love and loss' Country and Town House`[A] moving tale of forbidden love' Bella

Edition details

• Publisher: Isis Large Print
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0753187620
• ISBN 13: 9780753187623
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368