Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize | One of The Washington Post‘s Best Books of 2024 | An NPR Best Book of 2024 | An Elle Best Book of 2024
‘Brilliant, funny, warm-hearted’ Guardian
‘I love a novel this much maybe just once or twice a year’ Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Rodham and Romantic Comedy
What if the price of moving forward is losing the only family you’ve ever known?
Summer, 1987. On the sweltering streets of the dying New England mill town of Swift River, sixteen-year-old Diamond Newbury is desperately lonely. It’s been seven years since her father disappeared, and while her mother is determined to move on, Diamond can’t distance herself from his memory. When Diamond receives a letter from a relative she has never met, she unearths long-buried secrets of her family’s past and discovers a legacy she never knew she was missing. The more she learns, however, the harder it becomes to reconcile her old life with the one she wants to lead.
So begins an epic story spanning the twentieth century that reveals a much larger picture of prejudice and love, of devotion and abandonment – and will change Diamond’s life forever.
‘Swift River broke my heart, and then offered me hope‘ Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful
‘Sensational’ Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout
‘Brilliant, funny, warm-hearted’ Guardian
‘I love a novel this much maybe just once or twice a year’ Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Rodham and Romantic Comedy
What if the price of moving forward is losing the only family you’ve ever known?
Summer, 1987. On the sweltering streets of the dying New England mill town of Swift River, sixteen-year-old Diamond Newbury is desperately lonely. It’s been seven years since her father disappeared, and while her mother is determined to move on, Diamond can’t distance herself from his memory. When Diamond receives a letter from a relative she has never met, she unearths long-buried secrets of her family’s past and discovers a legacy she never knew she was missing. The more she learns, however, the harder it becomes to reconcile her old life with the one she wants to lead.
So begins an epic story spanning the twentieth century that reveals a much larger picture of prejudice and love, of devotion and abandonment – and will change Diamond’s life forever.
‘Swift River broke my heart, and then offered me hope‘ Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful
‘Sensational’ Paul Beatty, author of The Sellout
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Reviews
Darkly funny and fiery, heart-breaking and healing, with language so gorgeous I went back to read sentences again and again. A beautiful debut.
Deep, fast-moving and beautiful like the best of rivers, this haunting novel of family, race, betrayal and redemption both takes you places and casts light as it flows. I read it in one. A keeper.
Some novels have such a powerful atmosphere that the sense of place and emotional weather stays with you forever . . . Other works have characters so real they seem to exist in similar realms of memory to people or animals known in real life. Great books combine these qualities, and so it is with Essie Chambers' debut novel, Swift River . . . It is magnetic.
Swift River is a novel of great beauty and poignant humor . . . Chambers writes with tremendous wit and wisdom.
A beautiful multi-generational story of belonging, identity and what it means to find yourself when you've lost your family. Sentence by sentence, the writing can take your breath away.
A brilliant, funny, warm-hearted first novel.
Chambers' lyrical prose and rich, evocative descriptions create a vivid sense of place and time, immersing the reader in this expansive story of prejudice and love.
Anyone longing to get swept up in another summer read like Where the Crawdads Sing, look no further. Opening in 1987 but spanning multiple generations, this is the story of 16-year-old Diamond, and the mysterious disappearance of her father.
Exquisitely written, we are already eagerly awaiting Chambers' next novel.
A debut novel that will make you laugh, cry and think more deeply about the power of storytelling to shape our understanding of the world around us. Diamond is the kind of protagonist you wish you could meet. Smart, funny and fiercely resilient, she's the heart and soul of the book.
A sparkling debut about a young girl you'll never forget . . . With the smart and curious Diamond at its vibrant centre, Swift River has a real sense of humour . . .The book brims with gemlike sentences, striking imagery, metaphors and juxtapositions . . . Deceptively naturalistic and lyrical rather than showy, Chambers has produced a rare and rewarding thing: a fast-moving novel that you want to slow down and savour.
A heartbreaking, yet hopeful coming-of-age story about the high cost of family secrets.
Powerful . . . Chambers's sharply observed characters butt up against one another in funny and poignant ways. Diamond's unexpected friendship with another girl propels the story in surprising directions, but it is Diamond's fraught relationship with her mother that forms the heart of this ultimately hopeful coming-of-age story.
Poetic and propulsive.
An intimate family tale full of grace, beauty and humour.
Rich and insightful . . . Chambers is particularly skilled at depicting the way frustration and affection intertwine . . . A frank examination of family mystery and loss, set in a landscape of economic and racial turmoil.
A deeply moving portrayal of a girl you will absolutely fall for and cheer on through every scene of this remarkable debut.
A captivating debut. Infused with the bright and vulnerable voice of its young narrator, Swift River unspools a poignant coming-of-age story about hard and hopeful truths.
Astonishing . . . In Swift River, Chambers illuminates how the sprawling, twisted branches of our family trees traverse both genealogy and time-tracing not just ancestral lineages but history writ large.
Riveting . . . Swift River takes a deep dive into the psychological and historical trauma that accompanied living and navigating in a "sundown town", family secrets and more.
A poignant coming-of-age story about a Black girl growing up in a predominantly white New England town north of Boston in 1987 . . . Chambers's assured first novel sings.
Truly amazing. Such an incredible blend of intimate and epic, so smart and funny and honest and generous-spirited . . . I love a novel this much maybe just once or twice a year.
A fearless, cinematic exploration of loss and inheritance, written with fierce urgency and overflowing compassion . . . An addicting mix of hope and suspense.
A tender coming-of-age novel, a story of grief both personal and historical, one told with warmth and humor by a memorable, irrepressible heroine. Chambers writes powerfully about the bonds of family, the many ways people fail and save one another, and the human instinct for resilience.
A powerful novel about how our family history shapes us. Swift River broke my heart, and then offered me hope.
Diamond is a character to fall in love with - and an equal magic of Chambers' warm, deft and humane narration is the way that we come to see, through just one girl, her fractured family and her shards of community . . . The story of Swift River will go straight to your heart - it's a really special book.
Just the book we all need to revive our souls. It's told with such grace, humor, and above all, heart. I could follow Diamond and her captivating journey forever. It's heartbreaking. It's beautiful. This epic novel deserves all the attention in the world. A must read!
Complicated, frank, yet infused with that satisfying feeling one gets when you realize the missing piece to the puzzle is a sense of self . . . A sensational debut.
Chambers masterfully weaves this story together, building characters and worlds so real I felt pangs of nostalgia while turning the pages. This is a voice I'd follow anywhere.
Swift River is a deeply intimate, corporeal story about the secrets that we keep and the secrets kept from us. Essie Chambers is a sublime writer - with Diamond, she has crafted a narrative voice that is both wise and naive, generous yet restrained. Aching with want and drive from the first page, this is a novel that delivers on all of its promise.