Swift River

January 1, 2024

Chambers debuts with a story set in the summer of 1987, featuring Diamond Newberry, a teen who thinks, after her father disappears, that she is the only Black person in Swift River. A letter from an unknown relative connects her to a legacy of African American Newberry women--and to herself and family. Prepub Alert.

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April 8, 2024
Chambers debuts with a poignant coming-of-age story about a Black girl growing up in a predominantly white New England town north of Boston in 1987. It’s the summer before Diamond Newberry’s junior year of high school, and she and her Irish American mother, Annabelle, have been struggling to make ends meet since her father, Robert, disappeared seven years ago, when only his shoes and wallet were found on the side of the river. Knowing Annabelle would disapprove, Diamond secretly works at a motel to save money for driver’s ed lessons. After she befriends fellow student Shelly Ostrowski, the two begin making plans to move to Florida together following graduation. Diamond’s impulse to start a new life is driven partly by her mother’s continued struggle to obtain a death certificate for Robert, which they need for the life insurance benefit, and by Annabelle’s hurtful scrutiny. While plotting to leave, Diamond also exchanges letters with her father’s cousin Clara, who raised him. From Clara, Diamond learns more about the Black side of her family, and why they left town for Canada. Tension mounts as Diamond struggles to find a way forward and her bond with Annabelle stretches to its breaking point. Adding to the story’s depth are complex characterizations and intriguing epistolary interjections from Clara. Chambers’s assured first novel sings. Agent: Julie Barer, Book Group.

May 1, 2024
A biracial teenager longs for a different future as she faces her family's past and the buried secrets of her hometown. "When you have a terrible thing happen that everyone knows about," 16-year-old Diamond Newberry tells us, "you can be laid out flat by anyone." It's 1987 and she's stuck in Swift River, a decaying New England mill town, laid out flat by just about everyone. At nearly 300 pounds and the only person of color in town, Diamond has been lonely most of her life. The "terrible thing" that hangs over her is her father Rob's mysterious disappearance in 1980. Rob, who is Black, had been the subject of police scrutiny in the time just before his sneakers were found by the riverside, and Diamond struggles to separate rumors of his fate from fact. Since seven years have passed, Diamond's mother, Annabelle, who is white, tries to get Rob declared legally dead in order to receive desperately needed life insurance money. But when a letter for Diamond arrives from Rob's cousin, Diamond realizes how disconnected she's felt from her father's family and her "people," having grown up hearing whispers about a single night in the early 20th century known as "The Leaving," when all the Black mill workers planned to flee Swift River en masse. Chambers toggles between 1980 and 1987, while also immersing readers, via family letters, in Swift River Valley circa 1915, to tell a coming-of-age story that shows that our entry into adulthood carries with it all the weight of our family history and that of the places we come from. Despite a somewhat inelegant handling of Diamond's weight, this novel's assured plotting and emotional resonance should render it a breakout book. Call your book club: This symphonic debut is your next read.

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Starred review from May 15, 2024
During the summer of 1987, 16-year-old Diamond is the only Black person in the declining mill town of Swift River since her father's shoes and wallet were found on the riverbank seven years ago. She and her white mother, Anna, have lived at the edge of poverty ever since, hitchhiking and taking low-wage jobs until enough time has passed that he can be declared legally dead. As the date approaches, Anna spins tales about what they'll do with his life insurance payout, unaware that Diamond is planning for a different future; she's secretly taking driver's ed classes and planning to run away to Florida with a new friend. She has also begun corresponding with her father's cousin Lena, from whom she learns about her father's family in Georgia and the circumstances surrounding the Leaving, when almost the entire Black population of Swift River left town on a single evening in response to increasingly hostile racial attitudes. Chambers interweaves Diamond's first-person narration with flashbacks to the events leading up to her father's disappearance, Lena's letters, and letters from Aunt Clara, the lone Black resident to remain in Swift River. Insightful, moving, and wryly funny, Chambers' debut is sure to be a book-club favorite.

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