The Union of Synchronised Swimmers
A jewel of a short novel, a magic weave of intertwined fates. Six girls grow up on a piece of land between two rivers, belonging to no state. Swimming is their passion, but also a way to reach out to the world. The girls form a team of synchronized swimming, performing skilful tricks in and under water. Far away in Helsinki, Anita falls in love with the street performer Blue Flame. In California, Paulina gets on board a fishing boat to acquire the ingredients for the traditional soup in her homeland. On a Caribbean island, Betty gambles away all her money. The stories of young rootless women, suffering from undefined feelings of longing, come together in a dazzling multifaceted novella, reaching across the world.
Publishing information
Rights sold
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- Spain
- The Netherlands
Awards & nominations
Awards
2020
Toisinkoinen Literary Prize
Reviews
"Intimate, beautifully spare prose [...]"
”The Union of Synchronised Swimmers is a short, engaging read, and Sandu has done an excellent job on both the story and her English version. There’s a lot to like about these sketches of women in exile, struggling to make a new life for themselves and to block out the memories of their old one[…] Sandu’s novel is certainly an interesting take on the nature of migration and leaving your homeland behind, even if it leaves the reader with more questions than answers. It shows us that whether you jet off to a new job, or sneak across the border in your swimming gear, the mere fact of reaching a new country doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll live happily ever after.”
”The writing is as graceful as movements in the river they so elegantly swim in […]A small punchy, almost pocket-sized literary work of art, it’s somewhat offbeat from your regular novel. Read conscientiously to grasp unspoken atmospheres and clues between the lines.”
"Skilfully crafted and defined, airy, and multi-layered. Highly praised for the themes of detachment as well as the description of externality and differentness. A work greater than its size gives a chance to pause, feel, and reflect on what one has read."
"In elegant, thrifty prose, Sandu introduces each woman and her new life after escaping the Eastern Bloc – beyond when the women’s narratives have separated. Though the stories offered about each are slender, ending before truly beginning, Sandu’s novel strikes home. This is a timely and lyrical musing on the troubles waiting across the border: racism and xenophobia, the gendered nature of independent life, and the unexpected loneliness of no longer speaking in one’s mother tongue."
"With structural, determined prose, Cristina Sandu embodies the Eastern bloc cryptology of storytelling where strings of non-verbal cues and mistranslations become ways of speaking. Sandu evokes that eerie Soviet sense of hope, brimming with futility and grace."
"Cristina Sandu’s spare and sparkling prose is intimate and visceral. A deeply moving story about six women who dare to dream bigger than their muddy river, whose lives splinter from their tight synchronized formations into an unflinching, often unforgiving world. An exquisite and powerful read."
"The chapters of the novel have an astonishingly subtle and thoughtful dialogue...Sandu’s novel should be read in slow-pace, sensing the mood and questions and opportunities in between the lines...this noveI is about destinies that share a joint feeling of longing and yearning. Cristina Sandu has once again written a piece that proves her great talent."
"Cristina Sandu's narration is magical ... Her poetic and airy prose weaves together the strongly metaphorical and the realistic... In these moving stories about the fates of Eastern European women, her narrative is universal and titanic."
"There are a lot of subsurface vibrations in the book. Desire, as well as clear threats, but we don’t know whether those actualize. Ingeniously disconnected stories entice the reader to continue. On the other hand, they suggest that Sandu also has larger stories to tell… The accurate, delicate and subtle writing relies on the refined and sparing characteristics of the Finnish modernism."
