The Chronology of Water: A Memoir

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY KRISTEN STEWART

From the debris of a troubled early life comes an astonishing tale of survival, a paean to the pursuit of beauty, self-expression, desire—for men and women—and the exhilaration of swimming

THIS IS NOT YOUR MOTHER’S MEMOIR. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch, a lifelong swimmer and Olympic hopeful, escapes her raging father and alcoholic and suicidal mother when she accepts a swimming scholarship which drug and alcohol addiction eventually cause her to lose.

What follows is promiscuous sex with both men and women, some of them famous, and some of it S&M, as Lidia discovers the power of her sexuality to help her forget her pain. The forgetting doesn’t last, though, and it is her hard-earned career as a writer and teacher, and the love of her husband and son, that ultimately create the life she needs to survive.

"I've read Ms. Yuknavitch's book The Chronology of Water, cover to cover, a dozen times . . . The book is extraordinary." —Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club