Author Description

The harrowing coming of age of an East Asian girl, bone-scratching, blood-soaked, but also luminous. A mix of absurdity and fear, routine and fantasy, a searing experience of chlorine, sweat and blood. A human girl, Non Yu's day begins and ends at the pool. If she swims well enough and fast enough, the promise of good things to come-recruitment to a prestigious university, parental favor, coaching, a bright future-will appear. They say: to suffer is to be strong. They say: pain is when weakness is leaving the body. The weight of expectations, the brutality of growing up, and the plight of being born a woman are all added to her body. It hurts everywhere, all the time. All she could do was dive into the pool to escape. The moment her body touches the chlorinated water, her skirt turns into a fish tail and her skin turns into fish scales.