'The water slips over me like cool silk. The intimacy of touch
uninhibited, rising around my legs, over my waist, up to my
collarbone. When I throw back my head and relax, the lake runs into
my ears. The sound of it is a muffled roar, the vibration of the
body amplified by water, every sound felt as if in slow motion . .
.' Summer swimming . . . but Jessica Lee - Canadian, Chinese and
British - swims through all four seasons and especially loves the
winter. 'I long for the ice. The sharp cut of freezing water on my
feet. The immeasurable black of the lake at its coldest. Swimming
then means cold, and pain, and elation.' At the age of
twenty-eight, Jessica Lee, who grew up in Canada and lived in
London, finds herself in Berlin. Alone. Lonely, with lowered
spirits thanks to some family history and a broken heart, she is
there, ostensibly, to write a thesis. And though that is what she
does daily, what increasingly occupies her is swimming. So she
makes a decision that she believes will win her back her confidence
and independence: she will swim fifty-two of the lakes around
Berlin, no matter what the weather or season. She is aware that
this particular landscape is not without its own ghosts and
history. This is the story of a beautiful obsession: of the thrill
of a still, turquoise lake, of cracking the ice before submerging,
of floating under blue skies, of tangled weeds and murkiness, of
cool, fresh, spring swimming - of facing past fears of near
drowning and of breaking free. When she completes her year of
swimming Jessica finds she has new strength, and she has also found
friends and has gained some understanding of how the landscape both
haunts and holds us. This book is for everyone who loves swimming,
who wishes they could push themselves beyond caution, who
understands the deep pleasure of using their body's strength, who
knows what it is to allow oneself to abandon all thought and float
home to the surface.
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