Swimming to Elba
A Novel
by Silvia Avallone
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Pub Date Apr 30 2013 | Archive Date Jun 11 2013
PENGUIN GROUP Penguin | Penguin Books
Description
They were always a pair: daring, intelligent Anna and breathtakingly gorgeous Francesca. Just shy of fourteen, their newly acquired curves and skimpy bathing suits have earned them celebrity status on the beaches of their gritty town, where the glittering resort island of Elba taunts them from across the bay. The girls, aware of their newfound power, are on the brink of everything—high school, adulthood, ambition—but when their intense friendship suffers a blow, each sets off on her own, only to learn that the "glamorous" world of adult physicality can be at best banal and at worst dehumanizing. As their choices take them to a painful crossroads, the girls must reconnect if they have any hope of escaping their small-town destinies.
Frank, sensual, and evocative of the Academy Award–winning film Cinema Paradiso and the international bestseller The Solitude of Prime Numbers, Swimming to Elba is a harrowing yet redemptive meditation on politics, family, sex, and the lasting power of friendship.
Advance Praise
*Praise for SWIMMING TO ELBA*
“Powerful. As trenchant as it is true.”
—Le Parisien
“A galvanizing social novel, spacious and strenuous, like a film that would have been cosigned by Ken Loach and Gus Van Sant.”—Libération
“A beach read for strong-willed, independent souls.” —Kirkus
“Childhood friends Anna and Francesca have bloomed as adolescents, and they start to imagine a life beyond sleepy little Piombino, where they live. Maybe it’s time to take the ferry to the resort town of Elba. The friends’ dreams and disappointments might sound like the stuff of YA novels, but as this was runner-up for Italy’s Premio Strega and has been sold to 14 countries, something more must be going on. Watch.” —Library Journal
“Readers will devour this richly detailed, sensual bildungsroman.” —Booklist
“Avallone's engaging debut novel explores the troubled friendship of two sexually precocious young girl . . . Avallone does a good job of capturing the intensity of life-long female friendship and concomitant jealousies.” —Publishers Weekly
Included in the Los Angeles Times Summer Reading round-up
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780143123651 |
| PRICE | $22.00 (USD) |
