Half Swimmer. Noun. A German term for one who has recently learnt to swim but hasn''t yet mastered the technique. Growing up in 1980s East Germany, as the daughter of an army officer and a teacher, Tanja seems set up to become a model citizen of the German Democratic Republic. Except she has other ideas. And so, it turns out, does the course of history. Half Swimmer is a collection of stories from one life, following a young girl as she attempts to forge her own identity under the social pressures of both the GDR, and the capitalism of a unified Germany.