Review of Learning to Swim

I received a copy of Learning to Swim by Shayla Dugan as an ARC, and I was so excited to read it! It comes out in May, and it’s totally worth the read.

Learning to Swim was a heartwarming story about three generations of women sharing a house for the summer. Ida is a former Olympic swimmer and now a mother and grandmother with a major surgery looming, while she is unwilling to give up the freedom she has always loved. Gabby is her daughter, who has come home to help Ida recover from surgery, but also to try to rebuild her life after her marriage has dissolved. And Juniper is Gabby’s daughter, thirteen years old and forced to move across the country and in with her grandmother, leaving her father and her friends all behind.

What I loved about this story was the resilience each woman brought to her own life and to her relationships, and the ways that their private griefs allowed them to connect with each other more deeply and to grow. The title was a gorgeous metaphor for all three, each at her own stage of life.

I really enjoyed this debut and look forward to what else Ms. Dugan writes.