Reading Roundtable Adult Book Discussion - The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

Join us monthly, February through November, for our book club "Reading Roundtable" a book discussion for adult readers. Pick up a bookmark at the Recommendations Desk with a list of books for upcoming discussions. Books will be a mix of non-fiction and fiction, and will be available at the check-out desk one month before the discussion date.

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka is a 2022 novel about the turmoil faced by a group of dedicated recreational swimmers after a crack appears at the bottom of their community pool.

One of the swimmers, a Japanese American named Alice, is especially troubled by her fading memories of the war years, and by the chances she has missed to reconnect with her estranged daughter.

“The combination of social satire with an intimate portrait of loss and grief,” Kirkus observed in its starred review of the novel, “is stylistically ambitious and deeply moving.”

In 2023, the American Library Association selected The Swimmers as the winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Julie Otsuka has also won numerous awards for her previous novels, When the Emperor Was Divine and The Buddha in the Attic, including the National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award.

The Swimmers is 175 pages in regular print, and 257 pages in large print, and will be available to check out from the main circulation desk at Carnegie-Stout Public Library on June 1, 2025. Everyone is welcome to attend and participate in the discussion on July 14.