Last Summer I Went Swimming — Craig Joseph Danner

Jana is a lovely young girl, clever, outgoing, and more than a little troubled. Annie, a widowed old woman, is blind, lonely, and getting ready to die. And Henry-a pudgy, shy and struggling young poet-is wondering which of the two he might really be in love with. In what could be called a poetic hybrid of the coming-of-age classics, The Catcher in the Rye and Harold and Maude, Craig Danner presents a story of love, loss, sex, insanity, and the healing power of an unusual friendship. Staged in the quiet summers of a Pacific Northwest coastal island, this slender, lyrical novel is both remarkably lovely and occasionally brutal, while remaining warm, tenderhearted and ultimately uplifting. Craig Joseph Danner is the author of two previous novels, The Fires of Edgarville and Himalayan Dhaba. He was awarded the Pacific Northwest Book Award in 2002. He lives in Hood River, Oregon, with his two teenage sons.