'Pure genius, gliding lyricism . It is, simply, a delight' Independent on Sunday 'Vivid with chlorine-bleached swimsuits, and post-match sorrow' Caitlin Moran, Observer , Books of the Year As a teenager, Leanne Shapton trained for the Olympic swimming trials; now an artist, she is still drawn inexorably to swimming, in pools and the sea. What do you do with an all-absorbing activity once it is past its relevance, and yet you can't quite give it up? Swimming Studies is a lyrical, playful work that explores what it is like to move from a world of competition to one of recreation and introspection, giving a sideways glimpse into memory, adolescence, swimming, drawing, obsession and solitude. 'Exquisite . brilliant, eccentric and moving - an immersion in life . this enigmatic book is written out of what cannot be fathomed' Observer 'A rich account . told with the originality and playfulness of an artist . Shapton shares Dave Eggers' talent for taking the mundane and making it viscerally new' The Times 'Captures a bittersweet part of the writer's past as completely as a scent trapped in a bottle' John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead 'If there is a more beautifully observed examination of the weightlessness, silence, rigour and delight of what it means to swim, I've never read it' David Rakoff, author of Half Empty.