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Winner of the 2023 Epigram Books Fiction Prize

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A peek into the lives of Indian women learning to swim.

An eclectic group of Indian women living in a condominium in Singapore are determined to learn how to swim. To accomplish this, they must challenge cultural taboos, paddle against the tide of ingrained beliefs, tread carefully past family members, and dive deep into their pooled psyche to let go of things held dear.

The Campbell Gardens Ladies’ Swimming Class goes beneath the surface to fathom what hinders these women from owning the water. It plunges into unexpected situations and encounters unusual role models who help uplift these women and make them believe that nothing is impossible.
“A story about women coming together, bonding through their hesitations towards water. Beneath the surface and the lighthearted exchanges of women learning to swim is a rich interior world of middle-aged women who are balancing cultures and identities, insecurities and independence.”
—Carissa Foo, author of What We Learned from Driving in Winter and EBFP 2023 judge

“For an interconnected group of women living in a condominium, swimming becomes not just a metaphor for cultural adaptation and survival, but also for personal freedom, transcendence and even redemption in this heart-warming novel.”
—Cyril Wong, multi-award-winning author of This Side of Heaven
Vrushali Junnarkar is a dentist by training. When not practising, teaching or researching in dentistry, she contributes opinion pieces to a women's empowerment website, Women's Web, and writes for the Times of India on various aspects of living abroad as an Indian. She has also been published in What We Inherit: Growing Up Indian (2022). The Campbell Gardens Ladies’ Swimming Class is her first novel.

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The Campbell Gardens Ladies’ Swimming Class