“An enthusiastic and thoughtful work… glorious.”
-The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
“ELoquent… fascinating… gripping.”
-Booklist starred review
“An Aquatic tour de force.”
-Susan Casey, author of The Wave
“A truly Great Story.”
-Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run
“fascinating... you won’t regret diving in.”
-Carl Zimmer, author of She Has Her Mother’s Laugh
“BONNIE TSUI WAS BORN TO WRITE THIS BOOK.”
-Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
One of TIME magazine’s Must-Read Books of the Year * An NPR Best Book of the Year * A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice * A Los Angeles Times Book Club pick * An Atlas Obscura/Literati Book Club pick * A Bloomberg Best Nonfiction Book of the Year * A Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle bestseller * An Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Nonfiction * A Best Book of the Season: The San Francisco Chronicle * Outside * Oprah * BuzzFeed * Bustle
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 21st 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, even an Icelandic fisherman who improbably survives a wintry six‑hour swim after a shipwreck. New York Times contributor Bonnie Tsui, a swimmer herself, dives into the deep from the San Francisco Bay to the South China Sea, investigating what seduces us to water, despite its dangers, and why we come back to it again and again. She offers an immersive, unforgettable, and eye-opening perspective on swimming—and of human behavior itself.
Algonquin Books, April 2020 and 2021
Praise for Why We Swim:
“An enthusiastic and thoughtful work mixing history, journalism, and elements of memoir… We’ll never be the fish, Tsui reminds us. ‘But we get glimpses of what it’s like to be the fish. We get flashes of forgetting the water.’ How glorious.”
The New York Times Book Review
“Succeeds brilliantly… deepens from informative and entertaining to transcendent and moving.”
The San Francisco Chronicle
“Eloquent... fascinating… gripping.”
Booklist starred review
“Bonnie Tsui reminds us that humankind once sprang from and still seeks water… An amazing story.”
NPR’s “Weekend Edition” with Scott Simon
“Remarkably prescient... Tsui draws on athletic as well as reportorial grit—and more than a few good jokes—to uncover new lessons about the restorative power of swimming.”
Outside
“Eclectic, well-crafted… Readers will enjoy getting to know the people and the facts presented in this fascinating book.”
Publishers Weekly
“Lyrical and descriptive… Tsui’s beautifully written book will appeal to a wider audience beyond sports fans. This [is a] highly recommended narrative work.”
Library Journal
“[Tsui] conveys the appeal of ‘an unflinching giving-over to an element.’ An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.”
Kirkus Reviews
“A poetic blend of science and memoir.”
Discover magazine
“Flows beautifully. Tsui is an excellent storyteller and she captures the narrative quality of swimming: the way you move through your swim, whether in a pool or lake or ocean.”
Literary Review
“A love letter to swimming… in the tradition of memoir writers like Rebecca Solnit, Tsui examines the history of swimming as a sport, a survival skill, and even a martial art.”
The Journal of Alta California
“Thrillingly recounted… a meditation on swimming’s transformative effect on body, mind, and soul.”
The Los Angeles Times
“In this year of incarceration, a book like Why We Swim is a godsend. Tsui is a beautiful writer, thoughtful and enquiring with her language and determined throughout to leave no sea, lake or pool unexplored.”
The Irish Times
“Immerse yourself in stories of inspirational swimmers… Why We Swim is full of things to think about.”
The Japan News
“Tsui is a poetic writer whose flowing, immersive prose and colorful storytelling will hold significant appeal for readers—especially swimmers—of all curiosities.”
Shelf Awareness
“I was enchanted. A beautifully written love letter to water and a fascinating story that takes us from the first record of swimming—which lies in the middle of a desert—to tales of vanishing aquatic societies, sea nomads, and much more. Bonnie Tsui was born to write this book.”
Rebecca Skloot, bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
“The only thing better than reading Bonnie Tsui’s writing about swimming is swimming itself—and both are sublime. Why We Swim is an aquatic tour de force, a captivating story filled with adventure, meditation, and celebration.”
Susan Casey, bestselling author of The Wave and Voices in the Ocean
“Magnificent. Only a truly great story can hold my attention and Why We Swim had me nailed to the chair . . . I love this book."
Christopher McDougall, bestselling author of Born to Run and Natural Born Heroes
“This is a jewel, a paean to the wonders of water and our place within it.”
James Nestor, bestselling author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
“Why We Swim is a gorgeous hybrid of a book. Bonnie Tsui combines fascinating reporting about some of the world's most remarkable swimmers with delightful meditations about what it means for us naked apes to leap in the water for no apparent reason. You won't regret diving in.”
Carl Zimmer, New York Times science columnist and author of She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity