Book Of The Month January, 2008
The Swimming Pool SeasonRose Tremain
After the collapse of ‘Aquazure’, his swimming pool construction business, Larry and Miriam Kendall have exiled themselves to a sleepy French village. When Miriam is summoned to her mother’s deathbed in Oxford, Larry begins to formulate a dazzling new idea: the creation of the most beautiful, the most artistic swimming pool of all. Around them, Rose Tremain weaves the intricate fabric of the lives of two communities: Miriam’s mother, Leni, clever, beautiful and arrogant. Polish Nadia, tortured by the passions of her sad and guilty past. Gervaise the peasant woman – content with her boisterous German lover and confused husband. And the young tearaway Xavier, in love with the virginal Agn-s.
What We Think
The Random House Group Marketing on The Swimming Season:
A light-hearted exploration of relationships, The Swimming Pool Season switches between a collective portrait of Pomerac, a sleepy French village with a cast of locals both endearing and intransigent, to the more emotionally repressed Oxford associates of in-comers Larry and Miriam Kendall.
After the collapse of ‘Aquazure’, his swimming pool construction business, Larry and Miriam Kendall have exiled themselves to a sleepy French village. When Miriam is summoned to her mother’s deathbed in Oxford, Larry begins to formulate a dazzling new idea: the creation of the most beautiful, the most artistic swimming pool of all. Around them, Rose Tremain weaves the intricate fabric of the lives of two communities: Miriam’s mother, Leni, clever, beautiful and arrogant. Polish Nadia, tortured by the passions of her sad and guilty past. Gervaise the peasant woman – content with her boisterous German lover and confused husband. And the young tearaway Xavier, in love with the virginal Agnes.
‘Sharp, elegant, pure’
Mail on Sunday
If you liked The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, you’ll love this!