Hi,

Thanks so much for giving me access to this title. I read it a little while ago but it was at a point when I had a bit of a break from reviewing. I did take some notes as I was reading but I feel a bit too much time has passed now for me to do proper justice to it. I really enjoyed it though and hope this doesn't deter you from approving me for future titles. I actually ended up buying the latest edition of this last week for my wife as I know she'll love it.

Thanks,

Kevin.

I loved this book thankyou for giving me access to it. I live on the same coast as Ruth and her tribe and feel the same about its healing anger releasing and charging powers. I have never read about the family and world surrounding someone as restricted as Simon before. I want to reach into him but also into her to share their pains and hard won joys. The gathering of likeminded people is what saves me too, my vulnerability and my rage against life as it can be is made bearable by having people just like Ruth and her tribe in my world.

I initially read an extract from this book in a newspaper supplement and I was completely gripped, so was really pleased to be able to read the full copy via NetGalley.

For the first quarter of the book I was absolutely fascinated by Ruth's story and the ways in which she has had to adapt to her family and home life being a constant stream of carers, hospital equipment, and seeming chaos. Her resilience and 'can do' attitude is really inspiring, and I loved reading about her swimming tribe (hence the name of the book) which is her release from the stresses and strains of her life following her husband's diagnosis and deterioration in health due to motor neurone disease.

It always feels difficult to rate a book which is a biography or memoir, simply because you cannot put a rating on someone's life experiences. However, in terms of the writing and presentation of her story, I did suffer with how Ruth did so here. The writing style is fairly whimsical, and the account jumps all over the place - rather than a chronological account it jumps from one period of time or incident to another, and then back again, interspersed with memories of her own childhood. This can make it difficult to know exactly which point you are at with Simon's MND journey, as one minute he is able to move and talk, and the next he is able only to blink, and then again he is talking. This certainly leads to confusion. The tangential writing style I suppose is a good reflection of Ruth's own feelings and emotions, and does well to portray her constant inner turmoil, but for me it was too difficult to read.

The book didn't seem to have any kind of conclusion - I would have liked to know at what point Simon was at by the end of Ruth's account, or how the children were. It seemed to end all of a sudden with no update.

A really interesting read no doubt, but some may struggle to follow this style of writing.