Description
Book Synopsis''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
Trade Review
I loved this beautiful book. It's an attentive meditation on the pleasures and lessons of swimming in lakes, particularly in winter. Jessica Lee wears her bravery lightly and shares her knowledge with generosity. I recommend for outdoor swimmers or those who would like to be -- Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun
A brilliant debut . . . there is clarity and pleasure in the swim's afterglow * Times Literary Supplement *
A sublime, philosophical slipping into the deep. Her book, Turning, is filled with a wonderful melancholy as she swims through lakes laden with dark histories -- Philip Hoare * New Statesman *
Lee is intelligent and controlled, her writing clean and accurate . . . Turning is many things: a snapshot of Berlin seen through the prism of its lakes; the story of a broken and healing heart; a contemplation of identity; a coming-of-age story -- Katharine Norbury * Observer *
Bold and brave, she approaches her watery pilgrimage with a minimum amount of fuss. She doesn't, for instance, allow the ice on Brandenburg's lakes to get in her way, but takes a hammer to it . . . Lee writes like a siren, her silken prose blending with softly worn scholarship to enchanting effect. I challenge anyone to write more compellingly about Slavic suffixes or the formation of ice * Literary Review *
The redemptive power of these wild landscapes, the changes in the water, and in Jessica, combine to create an inspiring story * Daily Telegraph *
A lovely, poetic, sensuous and melancholy book * Irish Examiner *
Turning is about the joys of swimming through the year . . . Jessica brilliantly takes us into the water with her, even on those freezing mornings when she had to use a hammer to smash through the ice to get her fix. It's as much about loss and recovery as it is swimming. The water helps soothe Jessica's heartbreak and depression - a lesson for the rest of us about the healing power of nature -- Sun (Fabulous)
