He sank silently under...he could make out her legs. He swam stealthily towards her. When he was close, he reached for her legs. At his touch, she kicked out...But he was too quick for her.' It is 1980 and the monsoon season in Sri Lanka. Fourteen-year-old Amrith faces an uneventful summer in the cheerful, well-to-do household in which he is being raised by his vibrant Aunty Bundle and kindly Uncle Lucky. He tries not to think of his life "before," when his loving mother was still alive. Amrith's holiday plans seem unpromising until, like an unexpected shower, his cousin arrives from Canada. Amrith's ordered life becomes storm-tossed as he falls in love with the boy. Shakespeare's Othello, with its powerful theme of disastrous jealousy, is the backdrop to the drama in which Amrith finds himself immersed. A coming of age book for mature readers, Swimming in the Monsoon Sea explores first love in all its complexity and turmoil.