Product Description

January, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor – covert stammerer and reluctant poet – anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But he hasn’t reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. Charting thirteen months in the black hole between childhood and adolescence, this is a captivating novel, wry, painful and vibrant with the stuff of life.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8953 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"* 'His wildest ride yet... a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill' - Independent on Sunday on CLOUD ATLAS * 'Exceptional... clever, unusual, gripping and beautifully written' - Literary Review on NUMBER9DREAM * 'The best first novel I have read in ages... [it] beguiles, informs, shocks and captivates.' - William Boyd, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year on GHOSTWRITTEN"

Review

‘David Mitchell is dizzyingly, dazzlingly good…BLACK SWAN GREEN is just gorgeous.’

( Daily Mail )

‘A delight to read from beginning to end’

( Sunday Express )

'Luminously beautiful'

( The Times )

'I do hope to read a better British novel this year, but I can’t honestly say that I expect to.'

(David Robertson, Scotsman )

‘Mitchell is just about the best writer operating in Britain today...a novel that, like each of its predecessors, sticks in the back of your head for weeks after you’ve finished it.’

( Arena )

‘Spry, disconcerting and moving. It is also extremely funny even - or especially - at the blackest of moments.’

(Kate Kellaway, Observer Summer Reads )

‘Intricate and beautiful’

( Time Out )

‘Hugely touching and enjoyable’

(Rachel Cooke, Observer Summer Reads )

‘It is the best kind of contemporary fiction’ 

( Times Literary Supplement )

'Rich and strange'

( Guardian )

‘That very rare thing, a realistic first novel written by a master of his craft.'

(Christina Patterson, Independent )

‘All the drama and inadvertent comedy of the onset of adolescence are brilliantly laid bare…a deceptively easy read, at times uproariously funny’ 

( Evening Standard )

Sunday Express
‘A delight to read from beginning to end’

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Customer Reviews

Black Swan Green: Mitchell is a maestro
Black Swan Green, detailing 13 months in the life of Jason Taylor resonates soundly with our own experiences of growing up. On many occassions Mitchell is beautifully but undeliberately funny; at other times the book is breathtakingly tragic with Mitchell reminding us, like a contemporary Golding, of the cruelty and brutality which children and adolescents can be capable of.

A brilliant page turner from a sensationally good writer.
Much easier to read than his other books but no less satisfying. I'm surprised that it didn't breakthrough to the big time in sales terms; but perhaps the subject matter of a village boy in 1982 England sounds too unpromising or parochial - it's neither. I see that some other reviewers make literary criticisms of the novel but if you want a very well written book with great characters and a lively page turning plot (and who doesn't?) buy this.

Funny, perceptive and moving.....
A very impressive story of teenager coming to terms with the world around him in the 1980s. The story tells of the thirteen months of Jason's life between childhood and adolescence - the stammering, the bullies, the family strife, the Falklands War and the diverse and strange characters living in his village. As a sensitive, intelligent boy Jason has to make his way in life through a maze of dangers - knowing which boys to avoid, not using the wrong words, wearing the right clothes, not letting anyone know he writes poetry etc. The whole story is laden with cultural and historical references: Curly Whirlies, Thatcherism, Gotcha and ZX Spectrums.

An authentic narrative voice is in turns funny, perceptive and moving. In parts it is desperately sad (even though Jason expresses no self pity) but is ultimately positive and uplifting. Beautifully constructed novel and exuberant language.

I enjoyed all the references to Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes. This book has now waiting on my "books to read" shelf!