book cover of The Swimmers
 

The Swimmers

(2022)
A novel by

 
 
Longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards 2021


The outcast in a family of former competitive swimmers must prepare for the end of her mother’s life in this sharp, sparkling debut from a bold New Zealand talent.


'Intense, moving, and darkly comic' New Zealand Herald


When an affair ends badly and takes her career down with it, 26-year-old Erin leaves Auckland to spend the holiday weekend with her aunt, uncle, and terminally ill mother at their suburban family home. On arrival she learns that her mother has decided to take matters into her own hands and end her life – the following Tuesday.


Tasked with fulfilling her mother’s final wishes, Erin can only do her imperfect best to navigate difficult feelings, an eccentric neighbourhood, and her complicated family of former competitive swimmers. She must summon the strength she would normally find in the water as she prepares for the loss of the fiery, independent woman who raised her alone, and one last swim together in the cold New Zealand Sea.




Genre: Literary Fiction

Praise for this book

"The Swimmers has the kind of intelligent and beautiful quiet that explodes a brightness deep within the reader... I can't remember the last time I read a more generous book about care, courage, and figuring it out." - Pip Adam

"By turns touching, resonate, fiercely candid, and beautifully written." - Jill Ciment

"Darkly funny, desperately sad, brilliantly written. I absolutely loved it." - Claire Fuller

"A beautiful, heart-rending and totally absorbing narrative, a compulsive page turner from start to end - it's a little masterpiece." - Fiona Kidman


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