9 August 2014

Review: SWIMMING IN THE DARK, Paddy Richardson

  • first published in New Zealand and Australia (Pan Macmillan Australia) in 2014
  • ISBN 978-1-74353-120-4
  • 287 pages
  • source: my local library
Synopsis (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Four women
Four secrets
One promise

In a small New Zealand town, four women find their lives inextricably linked by a secret that could bring about their undoing... or set them free.

Serena Freeman, a once-promising high school student, has started to retreat from life and one night does not return home. Her sister, Lynnie Freeman, is carving out a successful career and is desperate to distance herself from her troubled past. But on hearing of Serena's disappearance, Lynnie is forced to return to the town of Alexandra to look for her.

The only link to Serena's disappearance is Ilse Klein, a quietly dedicated English teacher who longs for her lost childhood in Germany and the sense of belonging it gave her. She lives with her mother, Gerda Klein, who is beset by a devastating depression each winter and plagued by memories of Stasi Germany. The Kleins learned long ago that there is safety in silence, can they break a lifelong habit?

My Take

This really is among the best books I have read this year. I think it is one of those rare ones, where the literary merges with crime fiction. For much of the book you wonder what "the crime" is going to be, although in reality there are many.

The Freeman family is one of those small country town families blighted from the beginning by poverty and social circumstances. Lynnie, the eldest of five, escapes early and heads for the city, eventually making a better life for herself. Serena is the youngest, brighter, but still not protected by her mother, the school, and the authorities in the way they should. And then her mother contacts Lynnie to tell her that Serena has been missing for three weeks. Lynnie comes home.

Serena's favourite teacher is Miss Klein. She and her mother are immigrants from East Germany. Richardson does a wonderful job of describing their background and, for me, sheds light on what life in Leipzig under the Stasi was like.

The plots merge in the present in the small New Zealand town of Alexandra, but the story moves the reader effortlessly through time and location.

A fabulous read.

My rating: 5.0

About the author
Paddy Richardson is the author of six novels and two short story collections. Her fiction has been a finalist for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and short-listed for the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Awards. She has been the recipient of the University of Otago Burns Fellowship, the Beatson Fellowship, and the James Wallace Arts Trust Residency Award. Four of her novels have been translated and published in Germany. Paddy has lectured and tutored English Literature at university level and taught many creative writing courses. She lives on the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand.

I've also reviewed
5.0, TRACES OF RED

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Kerrie, I'm so pleased you enjoyed this as much as you did. I think Paddy Richardson is so talented, and this is an excellent example of how good she is.

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