About this item
Humans, unlike other animals that are drawn to water, are not natural-born swimmers. We must be taught. Our evolutionary ancestors learned for survival; now in the twenty-first century, we swim in freezing Arctic waters and piranha-infested rivers to test our limits. Swimming is an introspective and silent sport in a chaotic and noisy age; it's therapeutic for both the mind and body; and it's an adventurous way to get from point A to point B. It's also one route to that elusive, ecstatic state of flow. These reasons, among many others, make swimming one of the most popular activities in the world. Why We Swim is propelled by stories of Olympic champions, a Baghdad swim club that meets in Saddam Hussein's palace pool, modern-day Japanese samurai swimmers, and even an Icelandic fisherman who improbably survives a wintry six-hour swim after a shipwreck.
About the Author
Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the author of AMERICAN CHINATOWN, a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller that won the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Her new book, WHY WE SWIM, was published in April 2020; it was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, a TIME Magazine Must-Read Book of 2020, an NPR Best Book of 2020, and a Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe bestseller, and is currently being translated into six languages. Her first children's book, SARAH & THE BIG WAVE, about the first woman to surf Mavericks, will be published in May 2021. She lives, surfs, and swims in the Bay Area.
