Charles, an Oxford scientist on the eve of retirement, decides to counter his wife’s mid-life dream of an expanded marriage with his own: swimming the English Channel – at least once in his life. His Channel crossing turns into an ordeal, a rite of passage, and, ultimately, a tribute to the vagaries of love. At the end of his quest, Charles realizes that he cannot jump over his own shadow. He can only swim across and through it.

ISBN 978-1-935830-81-8 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-935830-82-5 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-935830-83-2 (ebook)

Publication Date: April 29, 2025

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

One of Germany’s most acclaimed poets and novelists, Ulrike Draesner has been awarded the Nicolas Born Prize (2016), the Gertrud Kolmar Prize for Poetry (2019), the Bavarian Book Prize (2020), the Grand Prize of the German Literature Fund (2021), and the Literature Prize of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation (2024), among others. Her many novels and poetry collections include: zu lieben (2024), Die Verwandelten (2023), hell & hörig (2022), Schwitters (2020), and subsong (2014). A member of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, she has been a poet in residence at Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of Oxford, Dartmouth College, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a professor of creative writing at Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig and resides in Berlin.