Swimming in the Dark

By Paddy Richardson

German immigrants, Gerda and Ilse Klein, live sedate lives of seclusion and routine in Alexandra, a small Central Otago town in New Zealand. Both mother and daughter are affected by their memories of Leipzig, the city the family escaped from in the early 1980s while it was still under the rule of the Stasi. For Ilse, these memories are of a home and friends she loved and still longs for. For Gerda the memories bring the desperate depression which overwhelms her in the dark months of winter. But for now the women look forward to summer, with the promise of peace and rest as Ilse, now a teacher at the local high school, begins her weeks of holiday. This expectation of peace is fractured when Ilse, while swimming as she regularly does in the evenings in the local river, discovers Serena, one of the few students she has allowed herself to grow close to, alone, terrified and in the process of giving birth. Suspecting that Serena is a victim of abuse, Ilse and Gerda take her and her child into their home, a decision which becomes the catalyst for change, but when Serena and her child come under threat, the women unite to protect them

• Language: English
• Publisher: Upstart
• Release date: Apr 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781927262184

Reviews for Swimming in the Dark

[shelleyraec · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An atmospheric psychological drama, Swimming in the Dark, the fourth novel by award-winning New Zealand writer Paddy Richardson, explores the themes of family, oppression, fear and the strength it takes to rise above them.Set in New Zealand, this contemporary, haunting tale unites four women, Serena and her sister Lynette, and school teacher Ilse Klein and her mother, Gerda, struggling against a legacy of fear, shame and guilt.Fifteen year old Serena Freeman is the youngest child of a family with a reputation for wildness and petty criminal behaviour in the suburbs of Otago. Studious and quiet, she has tried hard to avoid being tarred with the same brush, hoping to one day escape and create a new life, as her eldest sister, Lynnie, did seven years before. When Serena disappears no one seems to care but Lynette returns to Alexandra to search for her, determined to uncover the secrets her younger sister has been hiding.Their worlds collide when Ilsa inadvertently learns Serena's secret, a secret that revives terrible memories for Gerda of her time in Stasi Germany.Beautifully written, this is a complex and gripping novel which I couldn't put down. I'm loathe to reveal this story's secrets, and at a loss to articulate its power other than to say I was held captive by the undercurrent of suspense, moved by the character's struggles, and stunned by the novel's conclusion.A must read.

[smik_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This really is among the best books I have read this year. I think it is one of those rare ones, where the literary merges with crime fiction. For much of the book you wonder what "the crime" is going to be, although in reality there are many.The Freeman family is one of those small country town families blighted from the beginning by poverty and social circumstances. Lynnie, the eldest of five, escapes early and heads for the city, eventually making a better life for herself. Serena is the youngest, brighter, but still not protected by her mother, the school, and the authorities in the way they should. And then her mother contacts Lynnie to tell her that Serena has been missing for three weeks. Lynnie comes home.Serena's favourite teacher is Miss Klein. She and her mother are immigrants from East Germany. Richardson does a wonderful job of describing their background and, for me, sheds light on what life in Leipzig under the Stasi was like.The plots merge in the present in the small New Zealand town of Alexandra, but the story moves the reader effortlessly through time and location.A fabulous read.