Winner of the Australian/Vogel Award for Best First Novel, Tim Winton's An Open Swimmer is a meditation on past and present, a story of madness and murder, and of the punishing yet redemptive qualities of both fire and water.A fishing trip marks the end of Jerra and Sean's friendship, although once, when they were younger and more innocent, it would have seemed unbelievable that the bond between them - first forged by their fathers, and later sealed with their blood - could ever be broken. But growing up has meant growing apart, the differences between them widening, sharpening their teasing words into something crueller and less easy to forgive.'Winton's writing is a heady blend of muscular description, deep sentiment and metaphysics' - Sunday Telegraph