Bonnie Tsui in Conversation With Crissy Van Meter

Bonnie Tsui’s Why We Swim (Algonquin) is an immersive, unforgettable, and eye-opening perspective on swimming — and on human behavior itself. We swim in freezing Arctic waters and piranha-infested rivers to test our limits. We swim for pleasure, for exercise, for healing. But 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, swimming is 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, and even an Icelandic fisherman who improbably survives a wintry six-hour swim after a shipwreck. New York Times contributor Tsui, a swimmer herself, dives into the deep, from the San Francisco Bay to the South China Sea, investigating what about water — despite its dangers — seduces us and why we come back to it again and again. Tsui will be joined in conversation by Crissy Van Meter, author of Creatures.

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