Learning To Swim And Other Stories

Graham Swift has shown that he has an authority of style characterization grasp of life. These concentrated enigmatic stories address their subjects with such intelligent conviction and clarity that their ambiguities are not left to be stumbled on by the reader but are challengingly displayed. They are like Jamess stories in the way they apply an almost scientific analytical cleverness to the things in life which are forever vague painful or imponderable Times Literary Supplement The ties that bind people the good and bad things they do to each other the happiness embarrassment and the pain that they cause their friends their partners their children these are Graham Swifts chief concerns. He has a wide range he can be delicately sensitive or outrageously funny. He is a born storyteller Daily Telegraph