Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Press for the ebook. Fascinating true story of a Parisian women looking back on the moments from her past. The first is a carefree time in high school where she’s having her first sexual affair and becomes pregnant. The ease of getting an abortion is misleading to the emotional toil to come. The second tale is about her life long best friend, from school yard to grave and all the ups and downs in between. And the third is a complicated late love affair. A tough and honest self portrait.

I loved these three autobiographical novellas that were translated from French.: SEVENTEEN, FRIENDSHIP and SWIMMING: A LOVE STORY.

The later two were absolute gems. Friendship is about Colombe’s lifelong (with a small period of estrangement) friendship with Helene, a woman who is very different from herself. It made me think of my relationship with my bestie (from age 7) who is still my best friend to this day even though our lives do not look similar at all. I think this type of friendship is incredibly rare in today’s world.

Swimming: A Love Story is about love and loss later in life. Why I loved it? It’s about a divorced woman in her 50s, falling in love, being a sexual being, having affairs and dealing with the loss of love. It’s a refreshing look at aging and sexuality.

Translated from the French, this is a compelling collection of three short stories or novellas. It traces the life of a woman from teenage years through mid-life The writing is exquisite and descriptive. Her writing reminds me of Anne Ernaux (another writer I recently discovered) and in fact she dedicates her first story to her. As a woman, even though my life trajectory has been different from the narrator, I felt like I could relate to this character. A really good read and I recommend it!

Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP The Penguin Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

Colombe Schneck wrote these three novellas because she "had no choice". A celebrated and award winning author in France, Swimming in Paris: A Life in Three Stories has been translated into English, auto-fiction derived from her life.

In "Seventeen" she explores the abortion she had at seventeen, and through that her relationship with her progressive parents, their pasts, their support of her choice. Schneck frames it as a life choice vs. the shame, taboo, and silence that often surround abortion.

Reminiscent of Annie Ernaux's "Happening" (Schneck dedicated the story to her), she compares the freedom and privileges of the 1980s to the illegal and desperate decisions made by women in the 1960s.

"Friendship" is a beautiful story about a long relationship Schneck had with her friend Heloise. We feel the intimacy they share, the ease they keep coming back to each other over the years, through boyfriends, breakups, husbands, children. Their friendship persisted and the memories they shared were both unique to them and universal.

"Swimming" captures the intensity of a love affair, Schneck's Gabriel a swimmer and through him she learned a new side of her physical self as she embraced the sport.

With themes of loss and intimacy, love and heartbreak, Colombe writes of life events with bravery, sincerity, intention, frankness. The writing is perfect, lyrical, we feel that Schneck is sitting across from us relaying her stories, having a conversation. I found the collection honest and incredibly relatable.

My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press for the ARC. Fingers crossed that more of Colombe Schneck's novels are translated!

I was intrigued by the title and French author. But the content was surprisingly fresh and relatable. The first part deals with our main character at the age of seventeen and pregnancy choices. The next part deals with our narrator's long friendship with a childhood friend and her subsequent illness. The end of this trifecta, a laundry list of lovers. All compelling with underlying political and literary themes. A top reading experience.

Copy provided by the publisher and Netgalley

i expected to enjoy this book, because i love translated literature by women and i never tire of reading about france.

i didn't expect to be so impressed by it. the author's self awareness, the way she writes emotionally but cleanly and sparsely, her rendering of her life through such clear and simple prose, totally blew me away. i was enraptured by the last novella in particular, gobbling up the pages, my heart hurting, hoping for a happily ever after.

this had its weaker moments, but i am so pleasantly surprised. by a book i expected to like! what a treat.

(Thanks to @PenguinPress #gifted.) 𝗦𝗪𝗜𝗠𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗡 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗦 by Colombe Schneck is a book translated from French, subtitled A Life in Three Stories. That gives you an idea of the book’s structure, but not how close this “fiction” feels to a memoir. The stories, about a woman named Colombe, are narrated in both first and third person. This Colombe is the same age as the author, grew up in the same area, has the same profession, has won similar awards, etc. The line between fiction and the author’s life feels very thin, but on with the book!⁣⁣
⁣⁣
I loved the first story, 𝘚𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯, about an unplanned pregnancy. I found it incredibly real, highlighting SO MANY passages.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“I never told anyone how I accidentally became an adult.”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“I have become trapped by the fact that I am a girl.”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
The second story, 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱, is exactly that: the story of Colombe’s relationship with her lifelong friend, Héloïse. It also touches on social issues of class, politics and race.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“Colombe understands that Héloïse’s friendship has been a more faithful and abiding force in her life than most of her lovers. And if Colombe is better suited to friendship than love it’s not because friendship is secondary, or less demanding, but because it is a bond without a model, without rules.”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
In the final (and perhaps slowest) story, Schneck recounts a great love of Colombe’s life and how she became stronger and more connected to herself because of it.⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“For three years, I was in love with a man who loved me back for the sole reason that I managed to elude him. I held back, feigned indifference, quite the talented actress.”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“I am no longer afraid of the waning of a man’s love, because it always wanes.”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
These 3 stories paint a vivid picture of what it’s like to be a woman and does so with a distinctly French flair. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Swimming in Paris by Colombe Schneck was a deep and entertaining story.
I throughly enjoyed reading this set of three novellas.
I thought the writing was just amazing. And this author really captivated and sucked me in.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Beautifully written set of three novellas translated from the French the story of a woman’s life.The author shares her world her experiences her thoughts.I loved immersing myself in each of her stories and looking forward to discussing them .Highly recommend.#netgalley #penguinpress

A beautifully written set of three novellas- each of which can be read as a standalone (for want of a better word) but which are best read as one because they depict the life of a woman in three stages, Colombe at 17 falls in love, falls pregnant, and then...we move to Colombe and her friendship with Heloise. These two privileged young women might seem like blank slates but you know Colombe's back story. And then there's her life as a married mother whose family doesn't really figure into this. This is character not plot driven and it won't be for everyone but it may well speak to you. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel begs to be read and discussed. I longed to talk to someone about the characters and experiences. It would be perfect for a book club.

This is an exquisite book; three novellas about the author's life. So fresh, such beautiful writing (and wonderful translations as the original novellas are in French). And yes, so very french in the best way. It is, I think, a memoir, although it has a literary novel feel as well. The themes are universal but very particular to this young woman, from seventeen when she was forced to recognise she had a woman's body, to the story of her deep and non-judgemental friendship with another woman from a different background—but in friendship that was not at all important, and finally when she finds the love of her life from whom she learns, at last, as he teaches her to swim, to love and trust and rely on her own body; a body that will stay with her all her life, and unlike her father, her friend and her lovers, will always be there. I read it over two days, barely unable to tear myself away from it to carry out the mundane tasks of every-day life, or even my own, so much less wonderful, writing! À la vie Colombe Schneck! Thank you to the publisher, the author, the translators and NetGalley for a digital ARC.

The second vignette qbout friendship is so beautifully and simple written..it brings to mind Elena Ferrante all be it a different locale and socioeconomic class. I was so sad at the end as I looked forward to every reading moment with these women and their story…..literature at its best..the theme of female friendship over a lifetime is never old but increasingly rare ouvre

I'm very glad Schneck's works are being translated to English so more readers can understand the depth and value of her writing. This book is a 3-part collection of novellas about Colombe's coming of age. We hear about her heartbreak, love, pregnancy, aging, marriage, divorce, and more. The first novella is a must-read for every woman, but all of our stories are deeply insightful for anyone looking to learn more accounts of hardship and determination. She has such imagination in her writing and is so gripping from start to finish. I really look forward to checking out other translated works of hers in the future!

I adored the let three autobiographical (it seems) novellas that together paint a lovely picture of the author.

Schneck is a known, award-winning writer in France, and these are the first works of hers to be translated into English. A triptych of novellas translated from the French, compelling and detailed, tracing the development of the life of Colombe, so I assume these works, like those of Annie Ernaux, are autobiography, memoir, rather than fiction, and cut close to the bone, with similar themes - time, place, strictures, rules, coming of age, love, an accidental pregnancy, schooling, marriage, affairs, divorce, midlife, and more - but Colombe, an only child, is born after the May 1868 student uprising, with its increased freedoms of behavior at least in Paris. Her parents are Jewish left-wing doctors, first or second generation immigrants from Eastern Russia, part of the nouveau riche, though not as wealthy as Colombe's best friend from childhood, Heloise, and others at her exclusive private school long the bastion of important families with long lineages and old French money; still her family is part of the bourgeoise, with its rules for dressing and education and behavior, the rules ceding in more permissive Paris. Their life is easy, a lovely apartment in a lovely neighborhood, vacations, after school classes, school, ambitions, desires, the world will open for her, but all is not perfect - her mother Helene suffers intensely from her years during WW II, hiding alone in a church, untouched for years, saddled with the force of social anxiety and more, able to love but not able to show love. Her father, a psychologist and charming, very much enjoys the new freedom, is charming, has affairs, but always returns home. The first novella, Seventeen, is set in 1984, and Colombe's first love affair with a boy named Vincent unfolds with full knowledge of both sets of parents, sleepovers not hidden, and she is accidentally pregnant at 17. Though abortions are no longer illegal as they were in Annie Ernaux's time, the Veil law has been passed, but legality does not alter the effects of abortion, its emotional ramifications on Colombe through the years are no less intense for the legality. The second novella, Friendship, focuses on the coming of age of Colombe and her best friend Heloise - they live rarified lives, English-language classes to perfect their British accents, tennis lessons, her vacations with Heloise's family in beautiful South of France homes, never shopping malls or borrowing books from the library, but there are differences, relayed in subtle details between the friends' families during those formative years of the 1970s and 1980s, ethnic, class, and political. The third novella, Swimming: A Love Story, is set in 2020, and Colombe, from a distance of time, recounts her great love with Gabriel, post her divorce, when she is a mother and and a working woman, after a season of romantic disenchantment. They have nothing in common, but he is madly in love with her, and she, though fearful of trusting that love, does indeed give in to it, comes to believe it, but it is only later that she is able to look at the affair carefully, to see her emotional discomfort, to face the truth of her doubts, a love affair that unfolds and ends while Heloise is dying early; it's a beautiful meditation on the vagaries of being alive, about continuing on, though specific to time and place, these novellas also have great universality, and I found them fascinating, filled with grace, and frankness.

Thanks to The Penguin Group/The Penguin Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

Intereting approach but I am tired of the topic. Nicely written. Good luck with the book and thanks for the opportunity to read.