The Night Swimmers

· Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Graham Halstead
Audiobook
5 hr 9 min
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

Beneath the surface of Lake Michigan there are vast systems: crosscutting currents, sudden drop-offs, depths of absolute darkness, shipwrecked bodies, hidden places. Peter Rock's stunning autobiographical novel begins in the '90s on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. The narrator, a recent college graduate, and a young widow, Mrs. Abel, swim together at night, making their way across miles of open water, navigating the currents and swells carried by the rise and fall of the lake. The nature of these night swims, and of his relationship to Mrs. Abel, becomes increasingly mysterious to the narrator as the summer passes, until the night that Mrs. Abel disappears.



Twenty years later, the narrator—now married with two daughters—tries to understand those months, his forgotten obsessions and dreams. Digging into old notebooks and letters, as well as clippings he's preserved on the "psychic photography" of Ted Serios and scribbled quotations from Rilke and Chekhov, the narrator rebuilds a world he's lost—those searching and uncertain drives, his vague wish to be a writer. He also searches for clues to the fate of Mrs. Abel, and begins once again to swim distances in dark water.

About the author

Peter Rock's works of fiction include My Abandonment, which was adapted into the film Leave No Trace, directed by the award-winning Debra Granik. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, among numerous other distinctions. Graham Halstead is a professionally trained actor and voice artist, born and raised in Virginia and now living and working in Brooklyn, New York City. His voice is youthful, easy-flowing, and flexible, and lends itself to many different types of storytelling. He can be heard on TV and radio voicing spots for Airborne and Allegra.

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