Content Warning: This section discusses antisemitism, infant loss, and loss of children

Grief and loss is the most predominant theme of Florence Adler Swims Forever, which explores how those closest to Florence navigate the aftermath of her death. The novel, however, is expansive in its definition of both grief and loss; Rachel Beanland is quick to underscore the ways in which grief over a loved one is complex and often in conversation with other grieving—over futures, relationships, cultures, identities, and stability. Alongside secrets, grief drives the novel, with grief in particular propelling the emotional growth of the characters.

As Florence’s parents, Esther and Joseph experience her death most directly and intensely. Joseph copes with his grief through structure—the structure of religion, the structure of work, and the structure of family—but Esther cannot distract herself in this way because she is the primary emotional caregiver for the family. The loss of Florence propels her into a deep depression that the discovery of Joseph’s secret past compounds. She must contend not only with the grief of child loss but also with the grief of lost stability and lost control; the repeated references to her sudden awareness of her age underscore the many ways in which the life she built for herself seems to be slipping away from her.