An Open Swimmer is a remarkable first novel by one of Australia's most loved and respected writers, Tim Winton.Jerra and his best mate Sean set off in a beaten-up old VW to go camping on the coast. Jerra's friends and family want to know when he will finish university, find a girl and make his mark. But they don't understand the marks he's already made and those he wears in secret. What happened with Sean's mother, Jewel? And why is he searching for the fish with the pearl?An Open Swimmer, the story of a young man's search for meaning and redemption, won the Australian/Vogel's when Tim Winton was only twenty-one.