'The Swimmer' is a gripping, captivating novel about love, loss and what home really means.
Forty-three year old Ria is used to being alone. As a child, her life changed forever with the death of her beloved father and since then, she has struggled to find love.That is, until she discovers the swimmer.
Ben is a young illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka who has arrived in Norfolk via Moscow. Awaiting a decision from the Home Office on his asylum application, he is discovered by Ria as he takes a daily swim in the river close to her house. He is twenty years her junior and theirs is an unconventional but deeply moving romance, defying both boundaries and cultures - and the xenophobic residents of Orford. That is, until tragedy occurs.
Roma Tearne arrived with her parents in Britain from Sri Lanka at the age of ten and trained as a painter, completing her MA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. For nearly twenty years her work as a painter, installation artist, filmmaker and novelist has dealt with traces of history and memory in public and private spaces.
Roma's first novel, Mosquito, was published by HarperCollins in March 2007. She is married with three children and lives in Oxford.
Praise for Brixton Beach:
'Tearne at her lyrical best. A heartfelt and timely lament for the Sri Lankan tragedy' Chris Cleave, author of 'The Other Hand'
'Rich and satisfying' The Times
'An ambitious, lyrical novel, distinguished by its refusal to offer false consolation' Times Literary Supplement
'Richly characterised, elegantly modulated and deeply moving' Daily Mail
'A vividly sensitive writer' Independent