Turning

Jessica J. Lee - Canadian, Chinese and British - swims through all four seasons. This is the story of a beautiful obsession: of the thrill of a still, turquoise lake, of cracking the ice before submerging, of floating under blue skies, of cool, fresh, spring swimming - of facing past fears of near drowning and of breaking free.

'Lee is intelligent and controlled, her writing clean and accurate . . . Turning is many things: a snapshot of Berlin seen through the prism of its lakes; the story of a broken and healing heart; a contemplation of identity; a coming-of-age story' Katharine Norbury, Observer

'Bold and brave, she approaches her watery pilgrimage with a minimum amount of fuss . . . Lee writes like a siren, her silken prose blending with softly worn scholarship to enchanting effect' Literary Review


'Turning is filled with a wonderful melancholy as she swims through lakes laden with dark histories . . . Her clear, calm writing encompasses the truth and terror of open-water swimming: the conjunction of human and natural history that it represents as we swimmers hang there in the water, caught between elements, between our land-bound lives stationed in front of liminal screens and the infinite deep that lies beyond' Philip Hoare