The Pools

A modern literary tour de force from E. Lockhart, Printz and National Book Award honoree and bestselling author of the global sensation We Were Liars. Told through short, poetic chapters, this sweeping love story follows two teenagers whose lives—and the lives of everyone in their quiet New England town—are forever altered by a shocking transformation.

In a New England spa town, now long past its Victorian heyday, there still stand twelve pools, sourced by a single hot spring. The people of the town swim there every day.  After school, they swim. After dinner. For playdates. For dates.

Legend has it, one day long ago, people who bathed in the pools turned into birds. But that is just a tale.

Then one day, in the depths of winter, it is too cold to swim, even in the hottest pool.  That day, only five people go in the water:  two eight year-olds, at play; a teenage boy, trying to swim off a looming depression; and two old women, a couple, who never miss their exercise.

Next morning, the five of them wake up as birds.

The Pools is the story of Lexie. Her sister Orly has become a bird. And so has her first love, Chester.  When their families fail them, and when the doctors, apothecaries, religious leaders and healers fail them too, it may be up to Lexie to save their lives. 

The book is a quick read, an emotional gut-punch and a mediation on true love, and death and grief, sacrifice and identity.

Story Locale:New England; present day