The Swimmer

Roma Tearne

From Shelf: The 2011 Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist

A gripping, captivating novel about love, loss and what home really means.

A gripping, captivating novel about love, loss and what home really means.

Forty-three year old Ria is used to being alone. As a child, her life changed forever with the death of her beloved father and since then, she has struggled to find love.That is, until she discovers the swimmer.

Ben is a young illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka who has arrived in Norfolk via Moscow. Awaiting a decision from the Home Office on his asylum application, he is discovered by Ria as he takes a daily swim in the river close to her house. He is twenty years her junior and theirs is an unconventional but deeply moving romance, defying both boundaries and cultures - and the xenophobic residents of Orford. That is, until tragedy occurs.

Currently unavailable to Buy Local