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Florence Adler Swims Forever
by Rachel Beanland
"'Our club name,' said Gussie. 'All secret clubs have names.' 'By Jove, you're right,' said Stuart...His mind flashed through images: Florence tucking her hair under her red bathing cap, Florence plunging into the waves from the side of the rescue boat, Florence taking notes in the notebook with the pale blue cover. Quickly it came to him. 'We' ll call ourselves the Florence Adler Swims Forever Society.'"
It's the summer of 1934, in Atlantic City, USA. 19 year old Florence Adler is practicing to swim the English Channel, but on a routine swim in the sea off the Atlantic City coastline, she tragically drowns, leaving her family and friends bereft. Mother, Esther and father Joseph, decide to withhold Florence's death from her elder sister, Fannie, residing in hospital whilst heavily pregnant following a miscarriage. Fannie's seven year old daughter, Augusta (Gussie) struggles with this, but is helped by Anna (a refugee from Nazi Germany, who Joseph is sponsoring) and Stuart, Florence's friend and swimming coach. We spend three months over one summer with them, as they come to terms with the loss of Florence.
Based on the true story of the author's great, great aunt, the focus is on the (fictional) Jewish, Adler family, who run a bakery. Each of the characters has chapters from their perspectives, so we understand their feelings and desires: hopeful Anna's desire to bring her parents over; gentile Stuart's desire to escape his overbearing father; errant Isaac's (Fannie's husband) desire for a different, independent life; Joseph's desire to mourn Florence and help Anna and her parents; Esther's desire to protect her eldest daughter; and perceptive Gussie's desire to understand the world and her place in it. Love, loss, life and family combine in this beyond beautiful, emotional book.
It's the summer of 1934, in Atlantic City, USA. 19 year old Florence Adler is practicing to swim the English Channel, but on a routine swim in the sea off the Atlantic City coastline, she tragically drowns, leaving her family and friends bereft. Mother, Esther and father Joseph, decide to withhold Florence's death from her elder sister, Fannie, residing in hospital whilst heavily pregnant following a miscarriage. Fannie's seven year old daughter, Augusta (Gussie) struggles with this, but is helped by Anna (a refugee from Nazi Germany, who Joseph is sponsoring) and Stuart, Florence's friend and swimming coach. We spend three months over one summer with them, as they come to terms with the loss of Florence.
Based on the true story of the author's great, great aunt, the focus is on the (fictional) Jewish, Adler family, who run a bakery. Each of the characters has chapters from their perspectives, so we understand their feelings and desires: hopeful Anna's desire to bring her parents over; gentile Stuart's desire to escape his overbearing father; errant Isaac's (Fannie's husband) desire for a different, independent life; Joseph's desire to mourn Florence and help Anna and her parents; Esther's desire to protect her eldest daughter; and perceptive Gussie's desire to understand the world and her place in it. Love, loss, life and family combine in this beyond beautiful, emotional book.