Godspeed

A Memoir

Biography & Memoir, Sports
Cover of the book Godspeed by Casey Legler, Atria Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Casey Legler ISBN: 9781501135774
Publisher: Atria Books Publication: July 10, 2018
Imprint: Atria Books Language: English
Author: Casey Legler
ISBN: 9781501135774
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication: July 10, 2018
Imprint: Atria Books
Language: English

“A memoir for our times.” —Michael Stipe

“A coming-of-age drama captured through poetic prose and convincing honesty.” —Kirkus Reviews

“I swim for every chance to get wasted—after every meet, every weekend, every travel trip. This is what I look forward to and what I tell no one: the burn of it down my throat, to my soul curled up in my lungs, the sharpest pain all over it—it seizes and stretches, becoming alive again, and is the only thing that makes sense.”

At fifteen, Casey Legler is already one of the fastest swimmers in the world. She is also an alcoholic, isolated from her family, and incapable of forming lasting connections with those around her.

Driven to compete at the highest levels, sent far away from home to train with the best coaches and teams, she finds herself increasingly alone and alienated, living a life of cheap hotels and chlorine-worn skin, anonymous sexual encounters and escalating drug use. Even at what should be a moment of triumph—competing at age sixteen in the 1996 Olympics—she is an outsider looking in, procuring drugs for Olympians she hardly knows, and losing her race after setting a new world record in the qualifying heats.

After submitting to years of numbing training in France and the United States, Casey can see no way out of the sinister loneliness that has swelled and festered inside her. Yet wondrously, when it is almost too late, she discovers a small light within herself, and senses a point of calm within the whirlwind of her life.

In searing, evocative, visceral prose, Casey gives language to loneliness in this startling story of survival, defiance, and of the embers that still burn when everything else in us goes dark.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

“A memoir for our times.” —Michael Stipe

“A coming-of-age drama captured through poetic prose and convincing honesty.” —Kirkus Reviews

“I swim for every chance to get wasted—after every meet, every weekend, every travel trip. This is what I look forward to and what I tell no one: the burn of it down my throat, to my soul curled up in my lungs, the sharpest pain all over it—it seizes and stretches, becoming alive again, and is the only thing that makes sense.”

At fifteen, Casey Legler is already one of the fastest swimmers in the world. She is also an alcoholic, isolated from her family, and incapable of forming lasting connections with those around her.

Driven to compete at the highest levels, sent far away from home to train with the best coaches and teams, she finds herself increasingly alone and alienated, living a life of cheap hotels and chlorine-worn skin, anonymous sexual encounters and escalating drug use. Even at what should be a moment of triumph—competing at age sixteen in the 1996 Olympics—she is an outsider looking in, procuring drugs for Olympians she hardly knows, and losing her race after setting a new world record in the qualifying heats.

After submitting to years of numbing training in France and the United States, Casey can see no way out of the sinister loneliness that has swelled and festered inside her. Yet wondrously, when it is almost too late, she discovers a small light within herself, and senses a point of calm within the whirlwind of her life.

In searing, evocative, visceral prose, Casey gives language to loneliness in this startling story of survival, defiance, and of the embers that still burn when everything else in us goes dark.

More books from Atria Books

Cover of the book On the Seventh Day by Casey Legler
Cover of the book Cell-Level Healing by Casey Legler
Cover of the book Kiss the Sky by Casey Legler
Cover of the book Fashion Babylon by Casey Legler
Cover of the book The Douglas Kennedy Collection #1 by Casey Legler
Cover of the book The Encore by Casey Legler
Cover of the book Eyes to the Wind by Casey Legler
Cover of the book Pets on the Couch by Casey Legler
Cover of the book The Trick by Casey Legler
Cover of the book Picos y valles by Casey Legler
Cover of the book Mystic Cool by Casey Legler
Cover of the book The Library of Light and Shadow by Casey Legler
Cover of the book Fat Is Not Your Fate by Casey Legler
Cover of the book At the Water's Edge by Casey Legler
Cover of the book The Rose Labyrinth by Casey Legler
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy