As an adult, Lucy Greene lives hard and slips the clutches of any emotional commitment. She’s an incredibly appealing young woman who wields a bone-dry sense of humor as a shield and promiscuity as a weapon. But when she arrives in overheated Florida to take care of her cancer- stricken mother, Lucy finds herself in strange new emotional territory that can only be understood by a frank assessment of the past. Lucy unfolds the painful memories of her childhood—including a freak accident that occurred one fateful summer at the family lake house, after which her father seemingly disappeared and her mother moved forward on a very different course. Amid bitterness, self-doubt, and exasperation, it is Lucy’s one treasured memory—a midnight swim with her mother—that reminds her there is grace in her graceless world, a fact that helps her to forgive her mother and, ultimately, let her go.Uplifting but unsentimental, compelling and remarkably moving, Swimming Nakedis an unforgettable debut that will resonate with daughters, mothers, and anyone who’s ever searched her past in the hopes of finding a future.

Stacy Sims has worked in advertising, public relations, and graphic design, and writes a monthly column for Cincinnati Magazine. This is her first novel.