Black Swan Green
DAVID MITCHELL
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Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
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409 reviews (2006) (304p)
TIME Magazine Best Fiction Books
LA Times Book Prize for Fiction
ALA Notable Books - Fiction Finalist
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| Book Description |
From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new.
Black Swan 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 subtlest and most effective achievement to date. |
| Other Award Winning Books by David Mitchell |
| David Mitchell Award Stats |
| Major Prize* Nominations |
7 |
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| Unique Books Nominated for a Major Prize* |
5 |
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| Pulitzer Prize Wins |
0 |
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| Pulitzer Prize Nominations |
0 |
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| National Book Critics Circle Award Wins |
0 |
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| National Book Critics Circle Award Nominations |
1 |
Cloud Atlas · |
| National Book Award Wins |
0 |
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| National Book Award Nominations |
0 |
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| Man Booker Prize Wins |
0 |
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| Man Booker Prize Nominations |
2 |
Cloud Atlas · number9dream · |
| PEN/Faulkner Award Wins |
0 |
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| PEN/Faulkner Award Nominations |
0 |
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*Major Prize = Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award
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BACK
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617 reviews (2015) (256p)
