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The Swimming Pool Season
The Swimming Pool Season
Dec 4, 2025 11:40 AM

Author:Rose Tremain

The Swimming Pool Season

From the author of The Gustav Sonata

After the collapse of 'Aquazure', his swimming pool construction business, Larry and Miriam Kendall have exiled themselves to a sleepy French village. When Miriam is summoned to her mother's deathbed in Oxford, Larry begins to formulate a dazzling new idea: the creation of the most beautiful, the most artistic swimming pool of all.

Around them, Rose Tremain weaves the intricate fabric of the lives of two communities: Miriam's mother, Leni, clever, beautiful and arrogant. Polish Nadia, tortured by the passions of her sad and guilty past. Gervaise the peasant woman - content with her boisterous German lover and confused husband. And the young tearaway Xavier, in love with the virginal Agnes.

Over a million Rose Tremain books sold

‘A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion’ Independent I

‘There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain’ Irish Times

‘Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect’ The Times

‘Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists’ Salman Rushdie

‘Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness’ Marcel Theroux, Guardian

Reviews

A love story in the very best sense of the phrase...a very good novel as well as an enjoyable one

—— Literary Review

A tense and steamy narrative

—— Times Literary Supplement

A patchwork of pain and longing stitched into a satisfying pattern by Rose Tremain's humour and depth of sympathy

—— Mail on Sunday

The Lightning Keeper is a big, old-fashioned panoramic feast of a novel ... A marvelous story.

—— Philadelphia Inquirer

This is a beautifully crafted book - at once a gripping adventure story and a compelling portrayal of human emotion at its bravest and its most vulnerable

—— Economist

The Colour is the produce of a large and generous talent, generous in its giving of enjoyment

—— Financial Times

An engrossing novel, an adventure story with a sensitive side

—— Observer

The Colour is a measured book, a diligent, painstaking book

—— Sunday Telegraph

She is a magical storyteller - it is as an artist that she excels

—— New Statesman

Brilliantly detailed and textured

—— Daily Mail

Tremain is the finest of historical fiction writers

—— Gloss

It's uncommonly well written, with a bountiful supply of manic energy... Would Paul Auster kill to write a book as playful, fast-paced and unashamedly populist as this? Doubtful, but somewhere there's a "Paul Auster" who might

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

Sparky debut

—— Jonathan Barnes , Literary Review

Benedictus takes us on a trail of the contentious highs and lows of the rich and famous in a mixture of dark humour and sharp dialogue. For Benedictus, and his valiant debut novel, more of the same please

—— Ben Bookless , Big Issue

The story of the ultimate celeb after-party, it's a knowing wink at publishing and celebrity culture - a high-concept first novel sitting just the right side of salacious

—— Elle

The Afterparty avoids smugness partly because it has more affection that vitriol for the culture that it mocks... It's very funny, but sad, too... Well-drawn characters, smart dialogue and a canny plot

—— Anthony Cummins , The Times
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