144 pages
English language
Published 2024 by Little Brown & Company.
A tightly wound, consuming tale about a 1950s American housewife who goes for a swim in her apartment complex’s swimming pool one morning…and won’t come out.
It’s November 3, 1957. As Sputnik 2 launches into space, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day. Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn’t particularly happy in his job but he fulfills the role. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion with a key shot up her sleeve, is now a mother and homemaker. On this unseasonably warm Sunday, Kathleen decides not to join her family at church. Instead, she unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the deserted swimming pool of their apartment complex in Newark, Delaware. And then she won’t come out.
Beautifully constructed and revealing back and forth on 1950s family roles, though with the limits to its depth that implies.
