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Product Details
Simon & Schuster Audio, July 2009
Unabridged Audio Download
ISBN-10: 0743597583
ISBN-13: 9780743597586
Description
A ferociously original novel, sparkling with wit and blazing
with emotion, from a gifted new novelist.
with emotion, from a gifted new novelist.
A spectacular debut about the rise of an Olympic champion -- a novel about competition, obsession, the hunger for victory, and a young girl with an unsinkable spirit struggling to stay afloat in the only way she can.
When we first meet Pip, the extraordinary heroine of Nicola Keegan's first novel, she is landlocked in a small town in the center of Kansas, literally swimming for her life. Pip is tall and flat and smart and funny and supernaturally buoyant. On land, she has her share of troubles: an agoraphobic mother, a lost father, a drug-addled sister, and a Catholic education dominated by a group of high-energy nuns. But in the water, Pip is unstoppable. In the water, her suffering and rage are transmuted into grace and speed and beauty.
Swimming is the story of Pip's journey from a small Midwestern swim team to her first state meet, her brutal professional training, and the final, record-breaking swims that lead to her dizzying ascent to the Olympic podium in Barcelona. It's the story of a girl who discovers, in the loneliness of adolescence, in the family tragedies that threaten to engulf her, the resilience of the human spirit and the spectacular power of her own body.
Hear an Excerpt from the Audiobook
National Post, November 26, 2009
...Works of T.S. Spivet,' an illustrated novel about a boy-genius who hitchhikes from Montana to D.C.; Nicola Keegan's 'Swimming' about an Olympic swimmer; and Robert Goolrick's 'A Reliable Wife,' a dark gothic novel about a man who buys a ...
Richmond Times Dispatch, August 30, 2009
...Beach is one and swimming another: Think waves, lakes and backyard pools, but 'Swimming,' the engaging debut novel of Nicola Keegan, offers a more complex account of the activity. Television advertisements like to remind us ...
Book Reporter, August 29, 2009
...Nicola Keegan?s debut is a literary coming-of age novel that tells the story of young Philomena, nicknamed ?Pip.? When we first meet Pip, she is an energetic nine-month-old, born in ...
NPR, August 12, 2009
...By Nicola Keegan Hardcover, 320 pages Knopf List price: $25.95 Read An Excerpt. text sizeAAA Nicola Keegan possesses an exhilarating mix of talent and mastery. Her sparkling first novel, Swimming, narrated ...
Guardian Unlimited, July 24, 2009
...A literal and symbolic transfiguration lies at the heart of this unshowy, absorbing read, finds Catherine Taylor Review: Swimming by Nicola Keegan The shimmering, fluid prose is outwardly playful, yet this is a seriously well-crafted novel, ...
Times Online, July 17, 2009
...she wants from her life ? is marriage to Emilio enough? A warm, humane and finely written debut. Swimming by Nicola Keegan Chatto & Windus, £12.99; Buy this book; 320pp This first novel meets all the criteria of respectable American ...
Daily Candy, July 15, 2009
...winner around. But her story is all about losing. She?s the Kansas gal gone Olympic champion of Nicola Keegan?s debut novel, Swimming. Ever since her parents tossed colicky Pip into the pool, she?s been unfettered, swift, and swan-like. But ...
ReadingGroupGuides.com, July 7, 2009
...to stay afloat in the only way she can. When we first meet Pip, the extraordinary heroine of Nicola Keegan?s first novel, she is landlocked in a small town in the center of Kansas, literally swimming for her life. Pip is tall and flat and ...
New Jersey Online, June 26, 2009
...a delightful and moving story of an Olympic gold-medal winner growing up and competing in Kansas, there is Nicola Keegan's 'Swimming' (Alfred A. Knopf, $24.95). Crime fighters are back Jersey shore cops Danny Boyle and John Ceepak take on a ...
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