This was an impactful, at times devastating, and hopeful book inspired by the author's father. At first we meet Ming in 1962, when his parents both die during The Great Leap Forward. Then we meet Li and things really get started. Freedom Swimmer tells the story, in dual perspective, of Ming and Li who meet as teenagers in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution in China. They've had two very different experiences and interactions with the ruling Communist party: Li has come from the city and has been fairly well indoctrinated into the good that the party does and the wisdom of Mao, and Ming is from the small poor village where the party's impact has been famine, death, and destruction. When Li's set of the party is sent to Ming's small village to work and "educate," they strike up an unlikely friendship. Freedom Swimmer explores the dichotomy of their different beginnings, and how they get to a point of convergence. It thinks a lot about breaking away from cult-like brainwashing, about how solid ideas can be twisted for the sake of power, of thinking independently, of struggle, and friendship, and the things that we risk for a chance at freedom. The flow of the story was super well constructed, and while I'm not normally a fan of jumps in time, this execution really worked for me. Ditto not usually loving epilogues, but just a beautiful use of one that made me cry a little bit.

I also have a history degree, and I don't believe I've ever heard of freedom swimmers, thousands of young people who, between 195o and 1972, took a chance in the open ocean to attempt to reach British-controlled Hong Kong. I'm grateful to this book for the introduction, but as always intensely disappointed in the cruelty of humans.

CW: death of a parent, drowning, famine/hunger, domestic abuse of a child

A big thanks to Scholastic for the ARC.