The first major English translation of one of contemporary Japan's bestselling and most celebrated authors From Akutagawa Award-winning author Yoko Ogawa comes a haunting trio of novellas about love, fertility, obsession, and how even the most innocent gestures may contain a hairline crack of cruel intent. A lonely teenage girl falls in love with her foster brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool--a peculiar infatuation that sends unexpected ripples through her life. A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, taking meticulous note of a pregnancy that may or may not be a hallucination--but whose hallucination is it, hers or her sister's? A woman nostalgically visits her old college dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo, a boarding house run by a mysterious triple amputee with one leg. Hauntingly spare, beautiful, and twisted, The Diving Pool is a disquieting and at times darkly humorous collection of novellas about normal people who suddenly discover their own dark possibilities.
Presents information about swimming and diving in the Olympics including different types of swimming strokes, different diving events, and synchronized swimming.
When a chance conversation at lunch leads former, age-group swimmer Max Munson back to the water, he rediscovers the benefits of swimming both in competition and for his own pleasure and satisfaction. Diving Back In tells the story of a swimmer who hung up his goggles in frustration 30 years ago and finds a way to return to the pool. Keeping his ego at bay and focusing on the joys of the process, he found more to enjoy in maturity than he ever did in his youth. Telling his story, author Munson describes the array of advantages available to anyone who swims regularly, whether in competition or for the workout. Masters pool competitions, distance swim races, freezing swims in lakes and rivers -- Max describes them all in language that is inviting, helpful, and encouraging. His story leads the reader to the water and all it offers, including mood elevation, health benefits, a chance for active meditation, and improved well-being. If you have ever enjoyed diving into a pool or swimming out deep into a lake or challenging the current of a river, this book is for you.
A celebratory ode to the joy and enduring allure of the swimming pool, and a gorgeous photography book to accompany poolside daydreaming. Glamorous, seductive, and fun, made for lounging, frolicking, splashing, dipping, diving, floating, and escaping, swimming pools are symbols of both sport and leisure and conjure images of well-oiled bodies, colorful bikinis, and glimmering blue waters on hot summer days. Muse to writers, artists, photographers, and filmmakers, the swimming pool's careless opulence is splashed across the pages of this book in gorgeous images by contemporary photographers. In her second book for Rizzoli, curator, writer, and avid swimmer Lou Stoppard offers the promise of sunshine and the seduction of youth in her edit of some of the best contemporary swimming-pool photography. Organized by theme, from the glamour of the poolside party to the simple, meditative pleasure of being in the water, the selected photographs are as inspiring as they are moving. Photographers whose images are featured in this book include Sølve Sundsbø, Glen Luchford, Stephen Shore, Mert & Marcus, Diana Markosian, Martin Parr, Martine Franck, Alex Webb, Alice Hawkins, and Nick Knight. This is the perfect gift purchase for photography fans, swimmers, and lovers of leisure.
Explores the nature and appeal of swimming, from the history of the strokes to aspects of modern Olympic competition, as well as the author's personal experiences and milestones in the sport.
This powerful and lyrical poetry collection was inspired by a year of cold-water swimming in the ocean and rivers on the edge of Haida Gwaii. Kim Larocque started daily dips in the frigid waters after a joyful New Year’s Day swim with friends. These poems, steeped in the wild beauty of coastal British Columbia, document her journey and tell her story of loss, renewal, courage and the joyful, healing power of water.