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.
Black Swan Green
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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.' ( 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.' ( 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 )
'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.' ( 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.' ( 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 )
About the Author
David Mitchell's first novel, GHOSTWRITTEN, was awarded the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, NUMBER9DREAM, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize as well as the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. In 2003, David Mitchell was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and his third novel, CLOUD ATLAS, was shortlisted for six awards including the Man Booker Prize and won the British Book Awards Best Literary Fiction and South Bank Show Literature Prize. Born in 1969, he grew up in Worcestershire, and now lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 47 people found the following review helpful
By Lady Fancifull
TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Mitchell is a fantastic writer, continuing to display chameleon skills with every book. he can write, truthfully, with several different voices, and in several different styles.
In this book, on one level he damps down his pyrotechnics,by staying with one narrator throughout, rather than 'linking' different stories.
What he ends up with is a book of more traditional structure, following the journey of a adolescent boy, growing up in the early 80's in Worcestershire, with his own painful and often funny adolescence set against a backdrop of the Falklands War.
Whilst Mitchell can easily match Sue Townsend (Adrian Mole) with comedic touches, he also connects with something much more visceral and poignant.
His engaging narrator learns a lot in the space of a year about some very adult issues. This is a much easier book to read than Mitchell's others, and his craft is displayed much less flamboyantly, but is no less satisfying
In this book, on one level he damps down his pyrotechnics,by staying with one narrator throughout, rather than 'linking' different stories.
What he ends up with is a book of more traditional structure, following the journey of a adolescent boy, growing up in the early 80's in Worcestershire, with his own painful and often funny adolescence set against a backdrop of the Falklands War.
Whilst Mitchell can easily match Sue Townsend (Adrian Mole) with comedic touches, he also connects with something much more visceral and poignant.
His engaging narrator learns a lot in the space of a year about some very adult issues. This is a much easier book to read than Mitchell's others, and his craft is displayed much less flamboyantly, but is no less satisfying
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By Redeye
Format:Paperback
David Mitchell deserves awards for his writing because he must be the finest author around. Black Swan Green takes you through a year in the life of thirteen-year-old boy in a typical English village in 1982. His references to events of the time, in particular the Falklands War take you back as you read. It does help that Jason Taylor is a very likeable, intelligent and yet vulnerable boy, being afflicted with a stammer, and the book is very painful to read at times as he suffers that most bleak and hurtful thing, bullying. I'd recently read Cloud Atlas which was a brilliant but quite difficult read and I knew this book was a lot easier but I was surprised that he even linked this book to Cloud Atlas through the amazing and surreal Madame Crommelynck daughter of Vyvyan Ayrs and who was the unrequited love of the tragic Robert Frobisher. Overall this book is an absolute 'must' read, as good as 'Catcher in the Rye'.
65 of 71 people found the following review helpful
By David Hickie
Format:Hardcover
Anyone who is a fan of David Mitchell (and even those who have not read him) will love this book. However, don't expect the style of his previous books: Number 9 Dream, Cloud Atlas and Ghostwritten. This is the story of a year in the rather eventful life of Jason Taylor, a boy of 13 growing up in a village called Black Swan Green, Worcestershire, in the early 1980s. Jason, apart from being quite a normal 13 year old, is a stammerer who tries desperately hard to hide his 'secret' from the rest of his schoolmates. His story of his experiences at school is one that anyone who was a teenager can identify with: how he sees his parents, the teachers, bullies, and those strange creatures called girls. But what makes this teenage narrative come alive, what makes you feel like you are there with Jason Taylor is the often brutal honesty with which he tells his truth. He says all the things you thought about as a teenager growing up but didn't dare to articulate. Mitchell also manages to evoke a nostalgia for the 1980s, and his detailing is superb. You remember how you or your parents or friends felt during the recession, or the public mood during the Falklands War. And there is also a nice touch where Mitchell quite unexpectedly introduces a character from one of his stories in Cloud Atlas.
The English countryside and village life is portrayed without the slightest hint of romanticism. A teenage boy doesn't see life like that. This is life in the raw. Jason sees the often brutal contests between boys to establish a pecking order, he is afraid of being ridiculed or beaten up after school, he worries about his status among the rest of the kids and he wonders if he will ever have a girlfriend. Life for young Jason Taylor is very serious indeed. In Black Swan Green, Mitchell makes a rather unpromising subject tense and fascinating. And it's a real pageturner -- you just have to know what happens next. Just buy this book!
The English countryside and village life is portrayed without the slightest hint of romanticism. A teenage boy doesn't see life like that. This is life in the raw. Jason sees the often brutal contests between boys to establish a pecking order, he is afraid of being ridiculed or beaten up after school, he worries about his status among the rest of the kids and he wonders if he will ever have a girlfriend. Life for young Jason Taylor is very serious indeed. In Black Swan Green, Mitchell makes a rather unpromising subject tense and fascinating. And it's a real pageturner -- you just have to know what happens next. Just buy this book!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing.
This is a trip down memory lane for those who remember the challenges of adolescence and particularly for those who are enough to remember the eighties. Read more
Published 14 days ago by brian williams
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book group
Bought for my wife's book group. She could not put it down so it was read in super quick time
Published 1 month ago by ADB
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good read
A sophisticated Adrian Mole Would be good for someone who was thirteen in the eighties - funny and sad at times. Kept my interest and a good read
Published 1 month ago by barbara_wilmslow
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved this simple coming of life tale.
Brilliant, couldn't put it down. I could completely sympathise with the main character and the 80's references were fantastically nostalgic.
Published 1 month ago by allison suter
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best books I ever read....
David Mitchell is a genius and I am very proud that he comes from the same county as me ...
Published 3 months ago by Mrs S P Potter
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yet again, Mitchell demonstrates his dynamism
After reading and loving Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet, I couldn't pass this one by. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ezra
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb
Should be on the national curriculum – I'm sure would be a wonderful read for any teenager going through the usual trials, adventures and horrors of growing up. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mark Nilsson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Towards adulthood
Teenaged Jason is feeling his way towards adulthood hampered by a speech defect, vicious school bullies and parents whose relationship is clearly strained. Read more
Published 8 months ago by JoTownhead
4.0 out of 5 stars
small masterpiece
I'm generally a little irritated by Mitchell, as well as awestruck by his cleverness and artistry. However here I think he gets the balance just right between postmodernist... Read more
Published 9 months ago by A. J. McGowan
5.0 out of 5 stars
a dazzling read
Black Swan Green is the 4th novel by David Mitchell. It describes a year in the life of Jason Taylor, an intense, thoughtful but stammering thirteen-year-old budding poet living in... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Cloggie Downunder
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