The Swimmers

Chloe Lane was a 2021 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow and is founding editor of Hue+Cry Press. The Swimmers is her first novel and was written in Florida where Lane did her MFA. She now lives in Christchurch, New Zealand with her husband and young son.

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

'Tackles the subject of assisted dying with wit and pathos' The Independent

'A powerful and intensedebut' The Sun

'Exquisitely observed, harrowing yet surprisingly funny' SAGA Magazine

'Poignant and subtle with humorous elements as this disjointed family struggles to fulfil the final wishes of their loved one' Candis Magazine


'Darkly funny, desperately sad, brilliantly written. I absolutely loved it' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground

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

'By turns touching, resonate, fiercely candid, and beautifully written' Jill Ciment, author of The Body in Question

'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, author of The New Animals

'An intense, moving, and darkly comic story about unrepentant, difficult women' New Zealand Herald

'Strangely compelling... intensely moving' Academy of New Zealand Literature

'A powerfully moving story confronting the very timely issue of euthanasia' Together Journal

'Lane confronts issues surrounding euthanasia with enormous sensitivity but with lashes of humour and humanity' NZ Booklovers

'A remarkable book' ANZ Lit Lovers