In Florence Adler Swims Forever, Rachel Beanland explores how children pick truth from excuses

The others are her grandparents Esther and Joseph, her parents Fannie and Isaac, her aunt Florence and that young woman's swim coach Stuart, the only non-Jew in the cast.

If you were counting, you will realise that we need one more: that is 19-year old Anna, a refugee from Germany.

The story is set in Atlantic City New Jersey in 1934, a time when the Nazi party in Germany were making clear their attitude to their Jewish citizens.

Joseph, himself a refugee from an earlier time, manages to get a US visa for Anna, so that she can enrol in a US college.

At the moment she is sharing a room with Florence who is a champion swimmer at the final stages of preparing to swim the English channel.

Unfortunately, in one of her practice swims, she gets into difficulty and even an hour of "thumping her back" by medical staff and lifeguards fails to revive her.

At the time that this is happening, Florence's sister Fannie is in the final months of pregnancy. She had lost her second child, after a premature delivery, possibly the result of a spin with her husband Isaac in fairground dodgem cars.

Now her mother Esther decides that she should not be told about her sister's death, lest it bring on a similar early delivery.

She manages to persuade the hospital, the doctors and nurses, the media and everyone who was at Florence's funeral to maintain this silence.

That is the story in summary and it may seem a thin fabric on which to weave an entire novel.

The author keeps our attention by devoting separate chapters to each of her principal characters in turn, spread over the final three months of Fannie's pregnancy.

We learn that Joseph has a secret from his own European past and that Florence's husband Isaac is a less than attractive character.

The expected romance between Anna and Stuart eventuates against the anti-semitic views of his wealthy father.

The story is more than the usual family drama of secrets and lies.

It gives a good idea of the way that sadness and grief can sometimes be expressed as anger and aggression.

The accounts of Jewish funeral rites and mourning customs are carefully described and it is a useful reminder of how Europe and to a lesser extent, America, was conned into accepting the treatment of the Jewish people in the 1930s.

The writing is polished - "In the distance, Stuart could see lines of rain, like gray thread, fastening the clouds above to the ocean below" - and gives a good idea of place and time.

Which brings us back again to where we started with Gussie. She may not have liked swimming, but she is a completely delightful creation.

Seeing the world through her eyes is a reminder of how children can pick truth from excuses and know when they are not being told everything.

In a note at the end of the book, the author tells us that the character of Florence is based on her great-great-aunt.

If she consider a follow-up to this novel, let it be based on the future career of Gussie.