Swimming in the Ocean: A Novel

This novel is about tossing secrets into the water to become free from the bonds of silence and unnamed tensions that often hold us back from embracing our sometimes uncomfortable and cumbersome selves. Poet and freelance editor and writer Catherine Jenkins' debut novel boldly celebrates the resilience and complexity of human emotion and spirit in sleek and honest poetic prose. We travel with the narrator as she floats through memories and dreams of her past lovers, dealing with AIDS, suicide and personal secrets kept deep beneath the surface. Wading through the past, she moves into a strong reflective present, poised to dive once again, this time into the cold uncertainty of the future with renewed self-assurance and self-acceptance. Each segment of the novel folds over the next, slowly building a complex emotional whole. The spare, direct style of this novel will be likened to that of such diverse writers as Elizabeth Smart and Jeanette Winterson. It is a daring novel that vividly captures the tensions between sexual manipulation, romantic fantasy, abuse and intimacy, and the relentless and rewarding drama of self-discovery.