Swimming with Ghosts

 Swimming with Ghosts is the newest novel from author Michele Brafman.  Swimming with Ghosts is the story of family secrets.

Written in the style of a thriller, this novel starts out slowly and introduces the reader to all the

characters and building relationships. 

The action slowly builds as secrets are deftly revealed and relationships are altered.  Secrets can bring people together or they can pull families and friends apart. 

There are people who want to face adversity head on and there are people who want to

sweep trouble under the carpet and pretend it never existed. 

In the end the piles create such a lump under the carpet it is hard to walk over or around them anymore.  Gillian Cloud has made the River Run swim club her sanctuary. 

She brings her new friend Kristy Weinstein into the swim team world as they become inseparable. 

Kristy has reimagined her life by marrying the wealthy, Jewish, David Weinstein and

leaving her childhood and family behind. 

Gillian  also has secrets of her own she has left behind when she rewrote her family history.All the characters in this novel face addiction issues and childhood trauma. 

They each have to address those realities before they can heal and move forward. 

As the storm builds between the characters in this novel a derecho—a freak land hurricane, 

occurs, throwing the city into four days of darkness.

As the temperatures rise, so the tension between Gillian and Kristy and Gillian's husband Charlie .Our actions affect so many people that are a part of our lives. 

The end is an explosion of emotions and the final accounting for all the secrets

that have been building under pressure.

A well written novel that shows how confronting the secrets that seem

shameful can be liberating and open up better relationships.