by Ann Packer
Ann Packer is a talented archivist of family life, with its hidden crevasses and unforeseeable perils. In this collection of stories, Packer explores the moral predicaments that define our lives, the frailty of ordinary grace, and the ways in which we are shattered and remade by loss.
This collection is framed by two novellas. In the opener, "Walk for Mankind," Teenager Richard describes his bittersweet relationship with a rebellious, risk-taking 14-year-old Sasha, who has a clandestine affair with a drug dealer. Sasha's behavior is a reaction to her controlling father, an English professor who's spiraling downward professionally and personally. "Things Said or Done" is set three decades later, when Sasha, now 51 and divorced, has become Richard's caretaker, forced to deal with his self-destructive, narcissistic personality while recognizing the ways in which they are alike.
With Swim Back to Me, Packer delivers shimmering psychological precision and page-turning drama: her most enticing work yet.
-- From the publisher's description
This collection is framed by two novellas. In the opener, "Walk for Mankind," Teenager Richard describes his bittersweet relationship with a rebellious, risk-taking 14-year-old Sasha, who has a clandestine affair with a drug dealer. Sasha's behavior is a reaction to her controlling father, an English professor who's spiraling downward professionally and personally. "Things Said or Done" is set three decades later, when Sasha, now 51 and divorced, has become Richard's caretaker, forced to deal with his self-destructive, narcissistic personality while recognizing the ways in which they are alike.
With Swim Back to Me, Packer delivers shimmering psychological precision and page-turning drama: her most enticing work yet.
-- From the publisher's description
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