Praise for Forced Swimming Test:
​
Offers a personal experience so unflinching that it will surely resonate for readers that identify and make them feel less alone.
— Adam Farrer, author of Broken Biscuits and Other Male Failures
An honest, sometimes heartrending, exploration of neurodivergence, mental health and family that, for me, felt like a homecoming.
— Heidi James, author of The Sound Mirror
In Forced Swimming Test, Aldea dismantles mental health discourse, institutional orthodoxy, and inherited damage. These formally ambitious essays don’t resolve — they echo.
— Fernando Sdrigotti, author of A Foreign Country is the Past
Aldea’s work, part memoir, part critical reflection, draws on her experiences of loss and grief, depression and neurodiversity to bring to light both powerful feelings and complex ideas. The book is moving, personal, clear-sighted and unsparing — but not without hope.
— Robert Eaglestone, author of Literature: Why it matters