The water slurps my shoulders, torso, and back in a big, wet kiss, bending my image into an ironic clone of the truth. I bow to its dominance and let it break me open. The water alone will have me.
Watched obsessively by her guru-like coach, a nameless swimmer battles the element of water in a gruelling physical regimen. Outside of training, she floats loose in waters murky, salty, and chlorinated, engaging in aimless self-destruction, restraint looming just beyond her drifting hand. Incrementally, swimming is killing her; the pool is killing her. Hovering always nearby is a prickly vulture, waiting to feed on the swimmer’s remains …
Intense and immersive, Kiss the Undertow is a psychologically gripping account of endurance pushed to extremes.
The water slurps my shoulders, torso, and back in a big, wet kiss, bending my image into an ironic clone of the truth. I bow to its dominance and let it break me open. The water alone will have me.
Watched obsessively by her guru-like coach, a nameless swimmer battles the element of water in a gruelling physical regimen. Outside of training, she floats loose in waters murky, salty, and chlorinated, engaging in aimless self-destruction, restraint looming just beyond her drifting hand. Incrementally, swimming is killing her; the pool is killing her. Hovering always nearby is a prickly vulture, waiting to feed on the swimmer’s remains …
Intense and immersive, Kiss the Undertow is a psychologically gripping account of endurance pushed to extremes.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Jun 4, 2024 |
| Specifications | 184 pages | 5.25 in x 8 in |
| Keywords | competitive swimming; Nyad; Black Swan; extreme sport; Whiplash; Translated; body horror; female rage; stream of consciousness; Ottessa Moshfegh; |
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Excerpt |
| Written By |
MARIE-HÉLÈNE LAROCHELLE used to be a competitive swimmer and is now an associate professor at York University. Her research and writing focus on invective, violence, and discomfort in literature, areas abundantly explored in her first novel, Daniil and Vanya. Kiss the Undertow (Je suis le courant la vase) was a French-language finalist for the 2022 Trillium Book Award. She lives in Toronto. |
| Written By |
|
MARIE-HÉLÈNE LAROCHELLE used to be a competitive swimmer and is now an associate professor at York University. Her research and writing focus on invective, violence, and discomfort in literature, areas abundantly explored in her first novel, Daniil and Vanya. Kiss the Undertow (Je suis le courant la vase) was a French-language finalist for the 2022 Trillium Book Award. She lives in Toronto. |
“Immersing the reader in a world where these horrors seem unrelenting, Kiss the Undertow delivers an unsettling and unflinching look at the complex reality of abuse and psychological control.” — West Trade Review
“Written in rhythmic prose that engages all the senses through thick description, Kiss the Undertow is as unrelenting as the narrator’s training … For fans of dark, atmospheric literature with a focus on difficult characters, Marie-Hélène Larochelle and Michelle Winters offer Anglophone readers a gripping novel in translation.” — Miramichi Reader
"On a tour through the days and nights of a young athlete being exploited by her coach, Kiss the Undertow accumulates in turbulence. Discomfiting and sensorial, Larochelle's narrator pushes herself to the blurry edges of pleasure, dirt, and revelation. I couldn't stop reading." — Tamara Faith Berger, author of Yara
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