{"id":14188,"date":"2025-04-12T16:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T16:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14188\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T16:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T16:25:14","slug":"top-5-books-about-swimming-chosen-by-author-hazel-barkworth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14188\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 books about swimming, chosen by author Hazel Barkworth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our relationship with swimming has inspired a wide range of books and short stories. Here, author of The Drownings Hazel Barkworth picks her favourites.<\/p>\n

Swimming Studies<\/a> by Leanne Shapton<\/p>\n

A memoir of obsessive years as a competitive swimmer, and an exquisite meditation on the scars and desires they leave behind. Every detail is lingered over, immersing the reader in chlorine, pain and glory.<\/p>\n

Barracuda<\/a> by Christos Tsiolkas<\/p>\n

Danny Kelly chases Olympic stardom. He fumbles his chance, and spirals. This novel explores Danny\u2019s volatile relationship with the water. At its worst, the pool is bitter, harsh and toxic. At its best, swimming feels like flying. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Why We Swim<\/a> by Bonnie Tsui<\/p>\n

A former competitive swimmer delves into the wildly varying meanings of swimming, from open-water challenges to introspective lengths. This book spans centuries and continents, exploring water\u2019s power to seduce and destroy, and what it can mean for our bodies and minds.<\/p>\n

Dryland<\/a> by Sara Jaffe<\/p>\n

Swimming, within this tender novel, functions as a means of establishing of identity, set against the backdrop of \u201990s grunge. Julie Winter turns to the pool to seek the memory of her once-champion brother and to understand the shifting, hidden parts of herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Swimmer by John Cheever from Collected Stories<\/a><\/p>\n

In the lush \u201960s suburbs, swimming pool after swimming pool becomes a mythological space, both confining and transformational. As Ned Merrill follows his whim to swim through his neighbourhood\u2019s many pools, the water morphs from glinting turquoise to cold, troubling darkness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our relationship with swimming has inspired a wide range of books and short stories. Here, author of The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,7056,9825,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-14188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-from-the-magazine","11":"tag-top-5-books","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114325928358292728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}