Seattle Reads Turns 25: Celebrate by Reading Julie Otsuka's 'The Swimmers' With The Seattle Public Library
release date: March 16, 2023
Seattle Reads, The Seattle Public Library’s citywide book group that has been replicated around the world, turns 25 this year. To celebrate, the Library has chosen Julie Otsuka’s acclaimed 2022 novel “The Swimmers” as the Seattle Reads selection for 2023.
Otsuka will visit Seattle on May 19 and 20 to participate in several Seattle Reads events around the city. She is the only author whose books have been selected twice for Seattle Reads; her debut novel, the acclaimed “When the Emperor Was Divine,” was selected in 2005.
“When we were searching for the right book for Seattle Reads’ 25th anniversary, Julie Otsuka’s ‘The Swimmers’ stood out as a multilayered, lyrical, and deeply moving novel that readers from different generations and backgrounds will relate to and be excited to discuss,” said Stesha Brandon, Literature and Humanities manager at The Seattle Public Library. “It’s also thrilling to have Julie return 18 years after her first Seattle Reads appearance.”
“The Swimmers” is the story of what happens to a group of obsessed recreational swimmers when a crack appears at the bottom of their local pool. One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps, Alice is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese American incarceration camp in which she spent the war. Alice's estranged daughter, reentering her mother's life too late, witnesses her stark and devastating decline.
This searing, intimate story of mothers and daughters — and the sorrows of implacable loss — is the “most commanding and unforgettable work yet from a modern master” (from the publisher).
Alice’s story also connects to the subject of Otsuka’s novel, “When the Emperor Was Divine,” which “describes in poetic detail the travails of a Japanese family living in an internment camp during World War II, raising the specter of wartime injustice in bone-chilling fashion” (Publishers Weekly).
HOW TO GET A COPY OF ‘THE SWIMMERS’
Print, e-book and e-audiobook copies of “The Swimmers” are available in the Library’s catalog. Limited copies will also be available for informal borrowing (meaning patrons don’t need to check out the copies) at most Library locations and at several community partner locations, including the Frye Art Museum, beginning March 24. Check back closer to the event dates for details and a discussion guide at www.spl.org/SeattleReads.
Seattle Reads 2023 is presented in partnership with Densho; Frye Art Museum, Creative Aging Programs; the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Greenwood Senior Center; and The Memory Hub and UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center. It is made possible by The Seattle Public Library Foundation and The Wallace Foundation. Additional support provided by media sponsor The Seattle Times.
ABOUT JULIE OTSUKA
Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her first novel, “When the Emperor Was Divine” won the 2003 Asian American Literary Award and the 2003 American Library Association Alex Award. Her second novel, “The Buddha in the Attic,” an international bestseller, was a finalist for the National Book Award 2011 and won the 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the 2011 Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction. She lives in New York City.
ABOUT SEATTLE READS
Founded in 1998, Seattle Reads is a citywide book group in which people are encouraged to read and discuss the same book. Originally called “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book,” Seattle Reads was the first “One Book, One City” program. It proved so popular that that concept has inspired similar programs across the United States and internationally.
Seattle Reads is designed to deepen engagement in literature through reading and discussion. Everyone is invited to participate by reading the featured book, joining a book discussion or attending programs with the featured writer.
25 YEARS OF SEATTLE READS
- 2023: “The Swimmers” by Julie Otsuka
- 2022: “The House of Broken Angels” by Luis Alberto Urrea
- 2021: "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett
- 2020: "There There" by Tommy Orange
- 2019: "The Best We Could Do" by Thi Bui
- 2018: "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi
- 2017: "The Turner House" by Angela Flournoy
- 2016: "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves" by Karen Joy Fowler
- 2015: "The Painter" by Peter Heller
- 2014: "For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey" by Richard Blanco
- 2013: "Stories for Boys" by Gregory Martin
- 2012: "The Submission" by Amy Waldman
- 2011: "Little Bee" by Chris Cleave
- 2010: "Secret Son" by Laila Lalami
- 2009: "My Jim" by Nancy Rawles
- 2008: "The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears" by Dinaw Mengestu
- 2007: "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
- 2006: "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi
- 2005: "When the Emperor Was Divine" by Julie Otsuka
- 2004: Seattle Reads Isabel Allende: The 2004 series featured seven titles from Allende's body of work.
- 2003: "A Gesture Life" by Chang-rae Lee
- 2002: "Wild Life" by Molly Gloss
- 2001: "Fooling With Words: A Celebration of Poets and Their Craft" by Bill Moyers
- 1999: "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines
- 1998: "The Sweet Hereafter" by Russell Banks
Find book synopses for all Seattle Reads titles on this Seattle Reads web page.
MORE INFORMATION
The Library believes that the power of knowledge improves people's lives. We promote literacy and a love of reading as we bring people, information and ideas together to enrich lives and build community.
Contact the Library’s Ask Us service by phone at 206-386-4636 or by email or chat at www.spl.org/Ask. Staff are ready to answer questions and direct you to helpful resources and information.