Swimming In The Ocean is about tossing secrets into the water to become free from the bonds of silence and unnamed tensions that often hold us back from embracing our sometimes uncomfortable and cumbersome selves. Poet and freelance editor and writer Catherine Jenkins' début novel boldly celebrates the resilience and complexity of human emotion and spirit in sleek and honest poetic prose. We travel with the narrator as she floats through memories and dreams of her past lovers, dealing with AIDS, suicide and personal secrets kept deep beneath the surface. Wading through the past, she moves into a strong reflective present, poised to dive once again, this time into the cold uncertainty of the future with renewed self-assurance and self-acceptance. Each segment of the novel folds over the next, slowly building a complex emotional whole.