What makes a good life? What is a good death? The answers to these questions shimmer elusively just below the surface of The Swimmers, the third novel by Julie Otsuka (Penguin). Out today, the novel follows Alice – an elderly woman, a Californian, a mother, wife and devotee of her local pool – as she is slowly undone by dementia. While her condition worsens, memories from Alice’s past bob to the surface: men she’s loved, people she’s lost and the time she spent as a child in a Japanese American internment camp during the Second World War.
“The Swimmers doesn’t dive deep into what happened in the camps – instead, it shows that this extraordinary part of Alice’s childhood was just one fragment of her supposedly ordinary life,” says Stylist contributor Moya Crockett. “The narrative perspective shifts frequently, but as readers we spend a lot of time in the shoes of Alice’s unnamed daughter, who is watching her mother float away. This is not a novel with a neat plot or easily condensable message. But it will make you think hard about what gives your life meaning – from your relationships to your daily rituals – and remind you that even the quietest existences can be both heartbreaking and beautiful.” £12.99, Bookshop.org
