Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to it before it was archived but will review in full when I do.

This was nice! A novella with little snippets of the lives of women from a unnamed sovied country who escaped. It doesn't really have a big plot and we don't really get to know the characters. But I liked the writing and the snippets we got to see. Would have loved this when it was a full novel I think.

Six girls behind the Iron Curtain form a synchronised swimming team. They make it to the Olympics. Six women are scattered across the world, living a life of ups and downs. They miss home.

Despite its short length, this book meanders across themes such as freedom and alienation. The fragmented way the story is told, combined with deeply poetic language, culminates in something that feels more like a beautifully interesting idea than a fully finished story. It's a union of synchronised pasts that devolves into six distinctly different paths. And although I applaud the author's craft, because she has created something extraordinary in so few pages, this wasn't a fully satisfying read. At least not after only one time. I may revisit this one in the future, because I feel there's more to be discovered, hidden in beautiful language.

Sorry I didn't get to read it before the time ran out. I didnt know you couldnt renew once archived. I was looking forward to reading it aswell

It is a kaleidoscope of images, impressions, vignettes from the women’s lives, the people they encounter, the conversations that mark them, a novella in flash one might call it, and the gaps signify the distance between the six girls who once used to be so close. This worked upon me as a prose poem, although you shouldn’t expect something purely dreamy and lyrical: there is a lot of anger and sharp social observation too.

An interesting conceit, but the execution didn't quite live up to the premise. In fact, I found it all a bit discombobulating until I realised what was going on – I didn’t initially find it at all clear. It opens with a group of 6 girls playing in a river in an unnamed country – presumably behind the Iron Curtain somewhere – whose games in the water turn serious when they discover synchronised swimming. After a while they find themselves representing their country in the Olympics – and thus with an opportunity to defect. In a series of disconnected episodes we discover how things turn out for them individually afterwards. But these are only fragments and thus the reader has no chance to connect with the girls in any meaningful way. So I found the book unsatisfactory overall, which is a shame as there is the germ of a really interesting narrative here.

This short novella tells the story of six women who use synchronised swimming as their way out of an unnamed country behind the iron wall. A series of short stories show us their lives now spread across the world and connected by the almost fairy tale voice that tells us of their learning to synchronised swim and escape.
I was really surprised by how short this book was, I hadn't realised that going in and so when it finished I was shocked, I wanted more story!
The writing is really beautiful, I enjoyed the dreamlike vibe of life behind the iron curtain where the dangers could be read between the lines, and the way it felt like an old folk tale from the style of writing.
The flashes forward to what the women are doing now careful revealed that this escape into the western world isn't the escape they dreamed, with a darkness present in their current times too. I didn't understand the choice made to tell some in 1st person and some in 3rd, there didn't seem to be a coherent reason for the shift. I also felt like I wanted so much more from this novel, there isn't a plot which I don't mind but the book isn't really about an escape from behind the iron curtain but more a contrast of their lives then and now. I perhaps went in with the wrong expectations but I wanted more of the women as a group.

This is something of an odd book – more novella than novel – about six girls who join a synchronised swimming team in order to leave an unnamed country, behind the Iron Curtain. I thought it sounded really interesting, but, in fact, the story mainly consists of snippets of what happened to the girls afterwards, rather than the journey.

Of course, I get the idea of wanting to leave somewhere not always being the idealised version of the future that the girls dreamed of while they planned and plotted. Still, this is a very short read and six points of view, plus flashbacks, meant that it was all very fragmentary. More of an interesting idea, than a satisfying read, if I am being honest, which was a shame, as much of the writing was very poetic and immersive. I just felt like I wanted more depth.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

This has such a strange, offbeat feel to it that I really liked.

I think a lot of this went over my head but I was still captivated by the short sections.

Readers looking for traditional narratives and closure might not like this but I found the questioning and ultimately bittersweet tone of this a wonderful point of difference.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

A satisfying short fiction read. The novel follows two timelines - the older, coming together of the group of synchronised swimmers, and a more current look at the women’s individual lives having left the team (and their country) behind.

The pace is brisk, and the setting of the story across different countries effective and evocative. The six point of views offered by the author are different degrees of compelling, but on the whole the story flows really well, under a predictable structure.

I was left wanting more, which is often the downside of short fiction!

Young girls behind the iron curtain training g every day for the olympics and their dreams for a new life.Told from each of their point of views I really enjoyed following these young girls their dreams and hopes told in individual voices.#netgalley #scribeuk

Thanks to the publishers & Netgalley for a review copy.

This was a short read and I was left wanting to know more - so many whys, what happened next, what happened before... However, I did enjoy these short stories of six women (written from their own points of view) who under the guise of a synchronised swimming competition escaped from living in an unamed country behind the Iron Curtain because they were well written and engaging.

I loved the premise of this book but I found it didn't quite deliver. It took a long time to get going and I found the first half of the book ( mainly character development) very confusing. It was almost an assortment of stand alone stories.
Sorry didnt quite deliver for me.

Young girls in a country behind the iron curtain dream about life in the west and prepare for the Olympics . Are they ready for different kind of living, their understanding of the freedom?

Collection of short stories, each of one of the girls, now young women. Brief passages of their lives afterward their escape from the east. More of inner flow of thoughts and moments.

Overall good read, but nothing special, not very relatable.

A short read (112 pages) and six POV’s. The blurb said it was about six female swimmers behind the Iron curtain who began a journey to the Olympics. I thought it would be interesting, reading about their lives, the harsh workouts, their longing for more freedom. But the story is more what happened afterward, told by those six swimmers. It reads like seven short stories, one what happened before (in fragments) and for every swimmer a different story about what happened afterward.

This is not my kind of book. Seven stories in only 112 pages, just snippets out of their lives, distant. I couldn’t attach to either of them. The country the girls were living in was not mentioned (one of the Baltic states?). Besides there were no quotation marks in the (few) dialogues and I hate that. I don’t understand why it’s modern in literature to do so. And piercings and tattoos back then? Behind the Iron curtain? I have my doubts.

I hope other readers will like this story far more than I did.