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Swimming To Ithaca Paperback – Import, June 21, 2007

by Simon Mawer (Author)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 266 ratings
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On her deathbed, Dee Denham, at one time the toast of colonial Cyprus, tells her son Thomas that her illness is a punishment. Compelled by grief and a confused childhood memory of betrayal, Thomas finds himself searching for the meaning of her last words. He searches through faded photographs and love letters, seeks out survivors and examines his own imperfect recollections. A vanished world comes to life: the restless, seductive island of Cyprus at the end of Empire, a place of oleander and carob trees, cocktails at the Harbour Club and adultery in shuttered bedrooms, peopled by ghostly admirers and conspirators, lovers and spies. Dee's story, an intimate history of violence and tenderness for which Thomas finds himself quite unprepared, gathers momentum, against, in the background, the ominous roar of approaching disaster.

A vivid evocation of the past and a deft examination of the dangerous power of memory, SWIMMING TO ITHACA sets fragile human relationships against the unstoppable force of history and sheds new light on both.

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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Abacus
  4. Publication date
    June 21, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    5.16 x 0.91 x 7.8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0349119236
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0349119236
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Conjures up a 1950s world of carob trees, cocktails and rebellion―THE TIMES

The Cypriot narrative blooms with life, a certain intrigue and some sharply drawn characters―INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

About the Author

Simon Mawer was born in 1948 in England, and spent his childhood there, in Cyprus and in Malta. He then moved to Italy, where he and his family lived for more than thirty years, and taught at the British International School in Rome. He and his wife currently live in Hastings. Simon Mawer is the author of several novels including the Man Booker shortlisted The Glass Room, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky and Tightrope.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abacus; Digital original edition (June 21, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0349119236
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0349119236
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.16 x 0.91 x 7.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 266 ratings

About the author

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Simon Mawer

Simon Mawer

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Educated at Millfield School in Somerset and at Brasenose College, Oxford, I took a degree in biology and worked as a biology teacher for many years. My first novel, Chimera, was published by Hamish Hamilton in 1989, winning the McKitterick Prize for first novels. Mendel's Dwarf (1997), reached the last ten of the Booker Prize and was a New York Times "Book to Remember" for 1998. The Gospel of Judas, The Fall (winner of the 2003 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature) and Swimming to Ithaca followed. In 2009 The Glass Room, my tenth book and eighth novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. My 2012 book The Girl Who Fell From The Sky and its sequel Tightrope (2015) both feature the female Special Operations Executive agent Marian Sutro. Tightrope won the 2016 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. In 2018, my eleventh novel, Prague Spring, signalled a return to a Czech setting following both Mendel's Dwarf and The Glass Room; in 2022 my latest novel ANCESTRY, an exploration of fiction and personal history, will be published in both the UK and the US.

I am married, with two children and four grandchildren. My wife and I have lived in Italy for over forty years but now split our time between our home near Rome and a house in England.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
266 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

igor dumbadze
4.0 out of 5 stars ...another outstanding writing experience....
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2018
Verified Purchase
i have now read almost all of Mawer's books - an incredible author whose style of writing is nothing short of amazing. Even if you "disregard" the plot, experiencing the beautiful prose is time well spent.
Mawer seems to have a basic theme in his books: exploring the effect of the past through today's eyes; trying to understand the memories of past days and how they inexorably tie in to our present day being. No older character is quite what they appear to be - all having experienced a past life rich in both depth and breadth of experiences. And no past event is without some consequence either for one's self and/or for future generations. It does not hurt the book, that many of those actual experiences make for a highly absorbing story!
Having read the ending of this book, I found myself re-reading the earlier chapters - looking for passages I missed, or did not appreciate at the time - this helped expand upon the incredible confluence of fate and highlight the poignancy of the overall ending. Mawer does make you "think" about "stuff" and does not always lay things out in black and white.
An absolutely outstanding book on many fronts. The parallel stories augment the driving message and narrative.

Probably should be 4 3/4 stars!!!

As I further reflect on this novel, I would urge the prospective reader to look at the following relationships and ponder their significance:
-the whole episode with Nico and Dee; why? why not Damien??
-Tom (Thomas)/Charteris/Nico....
-why Dee did what she did at the end with the "Nico/Tom/Geoffrey" incident

"I believe we are punished for what we have done. This is my punishment." What exactly did Dee do to deserve this punishment??
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Max
5.0 out of 5 stars Great novel set in tumultuous 1950s Cyprus
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2010
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Great novel that takes place during the 1955-1957 rebellion for Cypriot independence. Mawer manages to weave many of the historical figures and places from that time into a very moving story.
7 people found this helpful
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Anthea Drescher
3.0 out of 5 stars Swimming to Ithaca
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2013
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Swimming to Ithaca was quite a good read but not too memorable. The main character was not a very strong personality, so for me not a very interesting person. His choices were a bit weak, and I found the whole purpose or story not terribly interesting.
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Annie
4.0 out of 5 stars Another treat from Mawer.
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2014
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Simon Mawer is such a wonderful and sensitive writer, and I highly recommend anything he has written.
Swimming to Ithaca is the fifth book I have read by him and I was not disappointed.
Set in the nineteen fifties it tells the story of Thomas (who has always felt confused about his childhood) and his search for answers following his Mother's death.
This takes us to Cyprus at the time when the British were trying to stabilize the country when there was unrest between the Turks and the Greek Cypriots.
His mother was beautiful and sought after during those days in Cyprus and he discovers things he may not necessarily want to know, but perhaps this knowledge also helps him to better understand his own feelings of his childhood and for his mother for whom he has a deep love.
The story flows easily but at the same time it has plenty of depth and holds the reader until the last page.
2 people found this helpful
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barmer
4.0 out of 5 stars Swimming to Ithica
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2012
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Simon Mawers characters are always beautifully drawn and totally convincing and his plots well researched and written with authority. There is a somewhat repetitious theme to his novels in that he frequently uses two generations in his stories but nevertheless Swimming wto Ithica is very well written and not a book to put down easily.
4 people found this helpful
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Lixy
1.0 out of 5 stars UNpleasant
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2015
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I've loved 2 of Mawer's other books, but this was disgusting, with unpleasant scenes and characters.
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Brenda Cohen
4.0 out of 5 stars very good read.
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2014
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The story , a book you don't want to finish. A god insight to the problems of human frailties. The chachters were very well portrayed
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Evelyn Tempany
4.0 out of 5 stars Low key
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2015
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This book was very low key. I empathized with the characters. Another book about the experiences of our childhood affecting our lives.
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Top reviews from other countries

Iby Knill
4.0 out of 5 stars past revisited
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2010
Verified Purchase
As a previous Army wife the description of life in Cyprus in the enclosed, indeed, often claustrophobic environment in which we lived , is captured exquisitely. The writing is fluid, factual, yet at times stops to explore the mental and spiritual dimensions of the participants.
I felt that Simon Mawer spoke from first hand knowledge and I enjoyed the book immensely, BUT - I also felt that towards the end of the book he reached a stage when he did not quite know how to finish the story and the ending came quite abruptly - and to me at least, did not chime with the rest of the book. However, I don't know how I would have finished it.
16 people found this helpful
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saspin
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing compared to other Simon Mawer books. I couldn't ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 9, 2016
Verified Purchase
Disappointing compared to other Simon Mawer books. I couldn't quite see the purpose of the two stories running alongside of each other, and felt it would have been more readable as the single story based in Cyprus. It was our local Book Club book and the average rating given was 6/10
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DC
4.0 out of 5 stars Reader
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 17, 2012
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Enjoyed this very much as it portrayed a period in my time that I knew little of and understood even less. As an exploration of attitudes and feelings in the fifties, it was well constructed. Having read it following the immensely wonderful The Glass Room I was disappointed - just not as good but nevertheless thought provoking and has been handed round to Book Group team.
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Arrived a little later than anticipated, but doesn’t really matter!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2020
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This was my second book by this author. It arrived in ecpxcellent condition and value for money.
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John K
4.0 out of 5 stars A little disappointing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2019
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Not the best of Simon 's novels that I have read. I felt a little uncomfortable with the characters and not quite convinced with the situations or plots.
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