We Swim to the Shark: Overcoming fear one fish at a time

Description

Georgie Codd is scared of fish. Really, really scared. She has spent her life beside the water, but won't so much as paddle in it. Even on dry land there's no escape: Georgie sees sharks in the dining room, squid tentacles in the street, has nightmares of being stranded at sea. She decides that the answer to overcoming this fear lies in travelling to Thailand, learning to dive and swimming with the biggest fish in the world: the massive, mighty whale shark. Could this immersive therapy actually work? There's only one way to find out. Georgie quits her job, leaves her life behind and plunges into a realm of strange creatures, hidden depths and intrepid diving adventurers. But as her quest expands across the oceans, her shark remains elusive and everything else starts to fall apart around her. For readers of The Outrun and The Salt Path, We Swim to the Shark is a meditation on diving, grief and what it takes to face our greatest fears. What readers are saying about We Swim to the Shark: 'Part travelogue, part odyssey and completely engaging. A must read' 'This book is so easy to devour . . . Plus it's full of fascinating facts about fish and how we can save our oceans' 'Adventurous, insightful, informative and entertaining'

Georgie Codd has worked behind the scenes at a funeral parlour, taught English in a Himalayan nunnery, edited publications for the Tibetan Government in Exile, and shadowed drug dealers in Florida City. She is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's Prose-writing MA, where her flash fiction won the Seth Donaldson Bursary. We Swim to the Shark is her first book.

an almost spiritual mission . . . sharply drawn * Times Literary Supplement * smart nature-narrative writing, and hugely enjoyable * Outdoor Swimming Society * Subtle insight into the inner psyche and the natural world * Hackney Citizen * We Swim to the Shark is a lesson in not giving up, demonstrating that, as with all good adventure stories, the real benefit is in the searching * The i * A terrific read * BBC Radio Norfolk *