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.
The English Girl: A breathtaking spy thriller from a bestselling
DANIEL SILVA
HARPER COLLINS PUBLISHERS LIMITED
Four: A Divergent Collection
VERONICA ROTH
The Reservoir Tapes
JON MCGREGOR
MAGIC SEEDS
V.S. NAIPAUL
PICADOR/PAN MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LIMITED
GUERRILLAS
THE MYSTIC MASSEUR
MINI SHOPAHOLIC
SOPHIE KINSELLA
BLACK SWAN/PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE GROUP
Slowness
MILAN KUNDERA
FABER & FABER/PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE GROUP
Running in the Family
MICHAEL ONDAATJE
BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC
THE SCHOOLDAYS OF JESUS (LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016)
J.M. COETZEE
HARVILL SECKER/PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE GROUP
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