The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

FIG TREE, £12.99 (EBOOK, £7.99) REVIEW BY IAN PARKER

Julie Otsuka’s third novel begins with the strict order and hierarchy of a swimming pool, where the regulars have their obsessive routines and swift judgments of those who do not respect them. However, when a crack appears underwater, that world is thrown into chaos. But Otsuka swiftly switches focus – the real crack is the dementia that has set in for one swimmer, Alice. When she loses her pool, the dementia takes over, as Alice’s estranged daughter

– a Japanese-American novelist whose resemblance to the author is obvious – takes over the job of chronicling her mother’s decline. The spinning rhythms are addictive but, at times, a stylistic straightjacket.