News of the Swimmer Reaches Shore

Overview

A travel book, an autobiographical novel, and a free-floating meditation on Europe and the Antipodes, this personal memoir begins with its narrator suspended in the salty, tideless waters of the Mediterranean. Adrift on an ocean of art history, literature and music, memories and a dream-like present, modernism, the politics of French nuclear testing, swimming, drowning, and underwater explosions are twined together with the life of a family in an innovative and engaging exploration.

Author Biography

Gregory O’Brien is a poet, essayist, editor, curator, and art writer. His collections of essays include After Bathing at Baxter’s and Welcome to the South Seas, which won the NZ Post Award in 2005. He is also the contributing editor to the American literary annual Fulcrum.