Swimming Home
Swimming Home is a novel by British writer Deborah Levy, published in 2011. The short novel deals with the experiences of poet Joe Jacobs, when his family vacation is interrupted by a fanatical reader. Critical reception for the novel was generally favourable. On 25 July 2012 the book was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and on 11 September that year it was shortlisted. It was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize (2013). Plot In the summer of 1994 the poet Joe Jacobs (Polish émigré Jozef Nowogrodzki) is on vacation in a summer home in Nice with his wife Isabel, his daughter Nina, and their friends, the couple Mitchell and Laura. The tranquillity is ruined when Joe's fan Kitty Finch turns up. Her fascination with, and sexual attraction to Joe are obvious, but Isabel invites her to stay anyway. Isabel is a foreign correspondent whose work has repeatedly taken her away from her family, and who has grown to tolerate Joe's constant infidelities. Meanwhile, Kitty's mental problems become more and more obvious, yet Nina is the only one who dares to address the issue. Towards the end it seems clear that Kitty is poised to kill herself. In the end,