Quotes
Praise for Ann Packer’s Swim Back to Me
“As funny as it is sad. . . . Full of revelations . . . near perfection. . . . [A] lovely, masterful collection.”
—Mameve Medwed, Boston Globe
“Most readers know Ann Packer from her best-selling debut novel. Swim Back to Me is even better, richer, more insightful. Packer can break your heart—and she can mend it, too. Easing readers in with recognizable characters facing familiar situations . . . she then injects a detail that makes us see the situations in a whole new light. . . . This fine work [is] surprising and absolutely true.”
—Karen Holt, O, The Oprah Magazine
“Astute. . . . Anyone intrigued by the ways we both fail and save one another will find ample food for thought here.”
—Kim Hubbard, People
“Ann Packer has a talent for creating authentic, absorbing characters—and it’s on full display in Swim Back to Me.’
—Ladies’ Home Journal
“[Packer] illuminates the instant, in the darkest hour of grief, when the heart opens wider than ever before—and shows us a new way of being.”
—Pam Houston, More
“A novella and five stories limn with acuity and empathy the intricate negotiations and painful losses of family life. . . . [Packer’s] prose is deceptively simple, her insights always complex. . . . Touching, tender and true. . . . As rich and satisfying as Packer’s two fine novels.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“[A] sterling collection. . . . Packer’s talents are evident. . . . Packer presents complex human relationships with unsentimental compassion.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Stunning. . . . Well-crafted and engaging. . . . These California stories are expansive and open-ended. It’s hard to let them go.”
—Sue Russell, Library Journal
Praise for Songs Without Words
“Packer’s voice [has] extraordinary authority . . . Compassionate, rich in solace.”
—Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review
“Engrossing, forgiving and quietly wise, Songs Without Words never makes a false step as Packer keeps both the pages and her readers’ minds turning until the very end.”
—Jill Smolowe, People
“As in The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, Packer makes the ripples from one act so involving you can’t pull away.”
—Good Housekeeping
Praise for The Dive from Clausen’s Pier
“Ann Packer knows just how to make a story build: the novel reveals a sure sense of pace and pitch, a brilliant ear for character . . . She has brought to intractable questions the energy of a humane novel that possesses, at its center, a searching emotional generosity.”
—Rob Nixon, The New York Times Book Review
“An intricately detailed, deeply felt, compelling and ultimately surprising portrait of a young woman . . . [whose] struggles with the demands of loyalty are moving and realistic . . . [A] wonderfully satisfying novel.”
—Jane Ciabattari, San Francisco Chronicle
“The trick to what Ms. Packer does lies in the utterly lifelike quality of her book’s everyday detail, and the secret, graceful ways in which that detail becomes revealing. . . . Her ear for dialogue is unerring.”
—Janet Maslin, The New York Times