Claire Fuller Swimming Instructional DVD-ROM: Learn How to Swim with Expert Tips & Techniques

Susan: Enjoyable read.

United Kingdom on Mar 15, 2023

Donna L. Cohn: This story is sad. The people are sad. Children growing up with a mother who can't do mothering very well. The father is living a lie.
Very lovely writing made me want to finish it.

United States on Mar 08, 2022

Mary Lins: I purchased “Swimming Lessons”, by Claire Fuller, after reading (and loving) “Bitter Orange” a few years ago, and am just now getting around to it (my “To Be Read” stack is daunting).

Ingrid and Gil are the two main characters around whom the mysteries swirl. Neither are at all likable – if you need that in a novel (I don’t). Basically it’s a mash-up of two fairly familiar plots: the first being the “disappeared mother” plot. Did Ingrid leave her husband and two daughters to live a life without them, or did she accidentally drown, or did she commit suicide?

The second plot is the “handsome older English (it’s always English, isn’t it?) Professor and writer, seduces his young student (half his age) plot.”

I enjoyed “Swimming Lessons” and was never bored by it. But “Bitter Orange” is a much better book.

United States on Mar 05, 2020

JLS: I’m not a writer, so I don’t know how to put it into words, but I’ll try. I feel like I was witness to actual events, the details so minute and real. The characters all people I know. The setting so beautifully described, I could smell the salty air. Thank you for another fantastic read, Claire Fuller!

Canada on Jan 06, 2020

LOURDES MONTILLA GORDO: Me ha parecido una buena novela. Narra la historia de una pareja con todas sus miserias y sus alegrias. Además tiene un punto de misterio que invita a reflexionar. Me ha gustado mucho

Spain on Nov 03, 2018

Froschkönigin: Bei diesem Buch hätte ich mir eins gewüscht: dass ich nur das betörend schöne Cover lange angeschaut und die ersten Seiten gelesen hättte, bevor zeitliche oder andere Gegebenheiten mich am Weiterlesen gehindert hätten. Dann hätte ich nämlich die Illusion behalten können, ich hätte da noch ein ganz wunderbares Buch liegen, das ich so bald wie möglich wieder zur Hand nehmen würde.
Was für ein fulminanter Start: „Gil Coleman looked down from the first-floor window of the bookshop and saw his dead wife standing on the pavement below.“ Gil ist in einem second-hand Buchladen auf der Suche nach seinen alten Büchern und nach Briefen, die seine Frau Ingrid ihm vor ihrem Verschwinden – und mutmaßlichen Ertrinkungstod vor zwölf Jahren - geschrieben und in verschiedenen Büchern deponiert hat. Aber ist Ingrid wirklich tot? Und war es ein Badeunfall, oder ein Selbstmord? Was hat dazu geführt?

Claire Fuller wählt eine ungewöhnliche Struktur, um die Hintergründe von Ingrids Verschwinden, die Geschichte einer unglücklichen Ehe, ganz allmählich aufzudecken, indem sie Ingrid nur indirekt durch diese Briefe sprechen lässt, und mit ihr die ganze Vergangenheit...

Germany on Jun 10, 2018

Sheila: With beautiful writing, Swimming Lessons pulls readers into the depths of a marriage and a family trying to cope with a mysterious disappearance.

The main character writes letters to her husband and hides them in books for him to find later. Through these letters, we see when they first met, married, and had children while hearing her unguarded thoughts about all of it. Chapters alternate between the letters and her family’s perspective years after her disappearance.

We see the highs and lows of relationships tinged with expectations and regrets. Fuller gives us the chance to navigate through the waves as if we’re there with the characters as they try to understand themselves and each other.

I loved the writing style and characters so much that I didn’t want this story to end. A perfect summer read.

United States on Aug 10, 2017

Laurel-Rain Snow: From the author of the award-winning and word-of-mouth sensation Our Endless Numbered Days comes an exhilarating literary mystery that will keep readers guessing until the final page.

Ingrid Coleman writes letters to her husband, Gil, about the truth of their marriage, but instead of giving them to him, she hides them in the thousands of books he has collected over the years. When Ingrid has written her final letter she disappears from a Dorset beach, leaving behind her beautiful but dilapidated house by the sea, her husband, and her two daughters, Flora and Nan.

Twelve years later, Gil thinks he sees Ingrid from a bookshop window, but he’s getting older and this unlikely sighting is chalked up to senility. Flora, who has never believed her mother drowned, returns home to care for her father and to try to finally discover what happened to Ingrid. But what Flora doesn’t realize is that the answers to her questions are hidden in the books that surround her. Scandalous and whip-smart, Swimming Lessons holds the Coleman family up to the light, exposing the mysterious truths of a passionate and troubled marriage.

My Thoughts: The alternating narratives in ...

United States on Aug 09, 2017

DiL: This is a story about a troubled marriage and dysfunctional family in which almost character is very unlikeable. The structure of the novel is interesting and it was well-written, but it was tough to care about any of these people except for maybe the older daughter who really got the short end of the stick. The husband is a world-class womanizer and arrogant, self-centered, selfish jerk, while the poor wife was too young and naive to understand what she was getting into before being stuck in a horrible marriage with kids. The younger daughter is flighty, immature, self-centered and completely useless like her father. The circle of friends and acquaintances are not much better. If you enjoy reading about miserable, stupid people, this is for you. I did not enjoy this novel but gave it three stars for the quality of the writing itself.

United States on Jul 25, 2017

Radha Rangarajan: A wonderful book to read with a beautiful narrative but one that leaves many open questions at the end. The author brings alive the characters vividly. I could not put the book down till I had finished.

India on Mar 13, 2017