{"product_id":"swimming-in-paris-a-life-in-three-stories-9780593833933","title":"Swimming in Paris: A Life in Three Stories","description":"\u003cb\u003eA Natalie Portman Book Club Pick \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Sinewy, tough, sharp . . . Even though Schneck works at a scale that is deliberately small, insistently concrete, and extremely lean, her writing somehow exposes whole vistas of the female experience.\" --\u003cb\u003eKatie Roiphe, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the award-winning and bestselling French author Colombe Schneck, a woman's personal journey through abortion, sex, friendship, love, and swimming \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eAt fifty years old, while taking swimming lessons, I finally realized that my body was not actually as incompetent as I'd thought. My physical gestures had been, until then, small, worried, tense. In swimming I learned to extend them. I saw male bodies swimming beside me, and I swam past them, I was delighted, my breasts got smaller, my uterus stopped working. My body, by showing me who I was, allowed me to become fully myself.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eSeventeen\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFriendship\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eSwimming\u003c\/i\u003e, Colombe Schneck orchestrates a coming-of-age in three movements. Beautiful, masterfully controlled, yet filled with pathos, they invite the reader into a decades-long evolution of sexuality, bodily autonomy, friendship, and loss. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSchneck's prose maintains an unwavering intimacy, whether conjuring a teenage abortion in the midst of a privileged Parisian upbringing, the nuance of a long friendship, or a midlife romance. \u003ci\u003eSwimming in Paris \u003c\/i\u003eis an immersive, propulsive triptych--fundamentally human in its tender concern for every messy and glorious reality of the body, and deeply wise in its understanding of both desire and of letting go.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Penguin Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/13\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780593833933\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.45lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.19w x 0.59d","brand":"Colombe Schneck","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45331895713973,"sku":"9780593833933","price":15.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_28417db0-2471-4f7d-8ff0-bbed17f08b09.jpg?v=1745938522","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/swimming-in-paris-a-life-in-three-stories-9780593833933","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}