A melancholy story of a broken family told in fantastic prose. 3/5 stars. 
 This review was originally posted on my book blog. 
 As with Our Endless Numbered Days, Swimming Lessons showcases Claire Fuller's wonderful descriptive prose. Every landscape, location (the Swimming Pavillion is a brilliant idea for a setting) and mood is captured evocatively, pulling the reader into and along with the story. 
 And, as with her first novel, she again shows skill in handling multiple timelines. This time she juggles three at once, all interweaving to build a complete picture of the dysfunctional family at the centre of her story. 
 Unfortunately, although this book is undeniably well-written, I just couldn't get into it. I lay the blame squarely with the characters who were an unloveable bunch. Gil, in particular, needed a good kick up the backside. I kept hoping we'd learn something about him which would redeem him, even slightly. Instead, with each new detail I had more reason to loathe him. Ingrid was perhaps the most sympathetic character, but I felt she needed a thorough shaking for putting up with Gil's crap. The rest of the characters were disappointingly bland and too weak to rescue the story from the shadow of their unlikeable and passive parents and friends. 
 Overall: if unlikeable characters aren't a problem for you, I'd recommend Swimming Lessons. The writing is terrific and the various plot strands are well-handled, I just couldn't get past the lack of anyone to like. 
 Thank you to Penguin and NetGalley for giving me a copy of the book.