THEIR SECRET SEA
Then the ocean of sorrow took her and she was crying
wildly, like a sea-wind that drives the water into terrible waves.
Johnny had loved Diane since the time, not so long ago, when
he first stood beside her, struggling to speak. In time they came to share
their lives.
Now in a few private hours, in a few winter days of
desperate anguish, they will find a closeness, a tenderness that transcends any
love they have known, bom of a tragedy that takes away part of themselves.
Swimmer in the Secret Seagives full expression to the powerful
sensitivity of one of Americas foremost younger writers. Celebrated for his
fantasy, passionate wit, and sensuous satire, William Kotzwinkle here reveals,
as noted by San Francisco Review of Books, a depth of emotion and an intensity
of feeling seldom seen in American writers today.
An immediate classic when first published in Redbook in 1975, Swimmer in the Secret Sea went on to be included in Prize Stories 1975: The O. Henry Awards and then published separately as a paperback. We are proud to restore to print this popular and critically acclaimed novella about Laski and Diane, a sculptor and his wife, and their struggle to bring a new life into the world, set against the backdrop of a cold Maine winter. Author William Kotzwinkle, well-known for his many enduring children's books such as Trouble in Bugland and his novelization of the movie E.T. The Extraterrestrial, is equally adept at writing seriously and poetically about life in extremis. This story of a father-to-be and his painful love for his wife and stillborn son will stay with readers for a lifetime.