Black Swan Green
David Mitchell
3.96 · 31 ratings · Published: 11 Apr 2006
Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons.
Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s most subtlest and effective achievement to date.
- coming of age 3
- contemporary 3
- literary fiction 3
- historical fiction 3
- bildungsroman 3
- realistic 3
- family 2
- drama 2
- funny 2
- friendship 2
- magical realism 2
- 20th century 2
- bullying 2
- war/big battles 2
- classics 1
- high-school 1
- action / adventure 1
- college/university 1
- domestic drama 1
- supernatural 1
- military, war & conflict 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- young adult 3
- audiobook 3
- book 1