About this item
A woman must leave her island home to search for her missing sister-and confront the haunted history of her family Magdalena does not panic when she learns that her younger sister has disappeared A free-spirit Jadranka has always been prone to mysterious absences But when weeks pass with no word Magdalena leaves the isolated Croatian island where their family has always lived and sets off to New York to find her sister Her search begins to unspool the dark history of their family reaching back three generations to a country torn by warA haunting and sure-footed debut by an award-winning writer The First Rule of Swimming explores the legacy of betrayal and loss in a place where beauty is fused inextricably with hardship and where individuals are forced to make wrenching choices as they are swept up in the tides of history.
About the Author
Courtney Angela Brkic is the author of The First Rule of Swimming (Little, Brown, and Company, 2013) , Stillness: and Other Stories (FSG, 2003) and The Stone Fields (FSG, 2004) . Her work has also appeared in Zoetrope, The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Harpers & Queen, the Utne Reader, TriQuarterly Review, The Alaska Review and National Geographic, among others. Brkic has been the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Whiting Writer's Award. Stillness was named a Barnes and Noble Discover pick, a 2003 Chicago Tribune "Best Book" and a 2003 New York Times "Notable Book". The Stone Fields was shortlisted for a Freedom of Expression Award by the Index on Censorship. She lives outside of Washington, DC, with her husband and son, and teaches in the MFA program at George Mason University.
