Synopsis

In Paula Eisenstein’s spare and provocative first novel, a young girl must come to terms with the discovery that her brother killed a young girl. Feeling alienated and not knowing how to ask for help, she decides that suppressing her sexual development will ensure she doesn’t do the same thing.

In Flip Turn, Eisenstein has created an unforgettable narrator whose success as an athlete leaves her conflicted about the attention she receives. She fears it will remind people of what her brother did and draw negative attention to her family. As her swimming triumphs lead her to the Olympic trials, she recounts her own sexual abuse at the hands of a coach and must decide if she should give up her passion to try to find a more normal life.

Flip Turn is available from Mansfield Press.

Reviews
 

"Flip Turn is a dark book. The coaches are sexual predators. The parents are oblivious accomplices. The pressure put on young swimmers is nearly unbearable, even to the extent of being likened to rape."

Angie Abdou, author of The Bone Cage 

"The trajectory is less of an arc than lengths back and forth across a pool–except that as the story progresses, the narrator’s voice and focus changes, deepens, demonstrating that this character is indeed maturing and that her awareness of the world around her is broadening."

Kerry Care, author of Waiting for a Star to Fall 

"Flip Turn is a strong and fascinating debut which reaches this reader with such force in part because of its Londoncentricity. The Hardy Geddes house, the old Y, Montcalm and Central secondary schools, Thames Park pool and the Portuguese bakery on Adelaide St. are among the landmarks of London, past and present, which provide backdrop for the hero’s brave course."

London Free Press
 

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