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Black Swan Green: A Novel
Unavailable
Black Swan Green: A Novel
Unavailable
Black Swan Green: A Novel
Audiobook13 hours

Black Swan Green: A Novel

Written by David Mitchell

Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

Selected by Time as One of the Ten Best Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News, and Kirkus Reviews | A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | Winner of the ALA Alex Award | Finalist for the Costa Novel Award

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 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 subtlest and most effective achievement to date.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 11, 2006
ISBN9780739332498
Unavailable
Black Swan Green: A Novel

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Reviews for Black Swan Green

Rating: 4.004631105620754 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,619 ratings126 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have a hard time saying why this book is so charming. Perhaps it's Jason's naked honesty as a narrator, the way he lays bare his own insecurity. Perhaps it's the way he anthropomorphizes his own impulses and problems, or how the initially de rigeur contempt/resentment relationship with his older sister rapidly becomes something more respectful and interesting. Perhaps it's that he writes poetry under the name of Eliot Bolivar.At any rate, Black Swan Green manages to make a memorable voice and an individual story out of what seems like very ordinary material: young boy struggles with identity and social acceptance in small English town in the 80s. The plot does have its predictable moments, but also its surprises. I enjoyed the book, read it quickly, and liked Jason much more than the average teen protagonist.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Compelling novel of coming-of-age in small town Britain in the early 80s.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There is something about a well written coming-of-age novel that grabs hold of your ‘young soul’ and gives it a good healthy massage- breathing it to life again.Black Swan Green by David Mitchell did this for me. It takes us to the Worcestershire backwater of Black Swan Green, (there are no swans on the green - local joke) and a young Jason Taylor struggling through his thirteenth year. On the surface there is nothing extraordinary about Jason, his middle class family consists of mum, dad and big sister Julia, who refers to him as ‘Thing’. He has a group of, if not popular, at least acceptable friends that try their best not to slide down the popularity ladder. And life is about not falling into the abyss that stretches between childhood and adolescence. Not an easy task with a stammer that insists on strangling your throat just when you need your voice, a family that seems to be crumbling under its own weight, and a group of school bullies cruel enough to put your teeth on edge. Set in the early 80’s of Thatcher’s England and seen through Jason’s young eyes, an immensely clear picture of village life unfolds and lures you in. I found it utterly engrossing and surprisingly stimulating. Many times I shared Jason’s frustration and fear, something that is imperative for me while reading a book. I need to care about the characters and the outcomes of their actions.Jason stores a few secrets throughout this book, but how he manages his stammer is just brilliant. He gives it the name, ‘Hangman’, and a personality, which helps in his battle to outwit it. He is not always successful, but that is the nature of the struggle, sometimes he wins, sometimes Hangman does. This is fantastic writing, and I was completely captivated by this exchange. I suppose I could relate to this on a personal level as my father had a debilitating stutter. As a child I just accepted it has part of him, but as an adult I am aware how difficult it must have been for him growing up with such a malady.This book is loaded with great school boy analogies like … ‘The staffroom’s like God. You can’t see it and live.’ Or ‘ …cigarette smoke billowed out like fog in Jack the Ripper’s London.’ And once you adjust to the apostrophe ridden dialogue, you find yourself constantly pulled back into those early high school years where every new day has the potential to send you to the moon or strike you down where you stand. It’s that basic and that complicated.Sadly, Mitchell has lessened the impact produced by some of his more descriptive phrases by using them more than once. This is a pity as it took the shine off a little for me. It appears as though some of his chapters were off-springs of earlier short stories, which could explain this over sight. Something that surely could have been picked up during the editing process. However, this was not enough to spoil the book for me and I was disappointed when Black Swan Green never made the cut for the ManBooker Prize. I was sure it would at the very least get shortlisted, but alas, my favourites seldom do, and it’s sad to think that this may result in some people passing it by. Don’t.If you’re inclined to take the advice of a prolific (if not chronic) reader, put this book on your reading list. You’ll be pleased you did.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a book by David Mitchell, who also wrote "Cloud Atlas" and "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet," both of which I loved. Those books were completely unlike one another, and this is unlike either of those, and I loved this as well. The voice of the main character, Jason Taylor, is brilliantly done - Mitchell totally nailed what it's like to be the painful age of 13. Funny at times, occasionally a bit scary, often discomforting, the story covers one year in this kid's life. It's about bullying for sure, also about self discovery, and ultimately about growing up. Simply wonderful.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Three books later, I am not completely sold on David Mitchell. I enjoy his writing style, but his stories have something about them that I have a hard time really appreciating. This particular book is well written, but there is no real climax to the story. Each chapter acts more or less as a short story in the life of a 13 year old boy in England in the early 1980s. I appreciated the historical references, but the misery and bullying the kid goes through made it difficult for me to read. Maybe my problem is more personal and it brought me back to that awkward age in my own life, but this is not a book I will return to in the future.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    a year in the life of a boy in a small village in central England during the 80's, bullies, first love, family squabbles and the Falklands War. Enjoyed this quite a bit. Very "English" in the language that took me a bit to muddle thru, but not too bad. A cow of an awkward pause mooed. Art fabricated of the inarticulate is beauty
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Jason Taylor is thirteen years old, living in a village in Worchestershire, in the west midlands of England. It is 1982, the cold war is dying and Margaret Thatcher is playing host to a continuing recession and the Falklands War. This coming of age novel, tracks a year in Jason's life. In episodic bursts, we see days of wonder and joy, followed by flashes of adolescent brutality, as Jason is mercilessly bullied, for having a stammer. He is also a bystander, to the unraveling of his parents marriage, which is particularly painful to the teenager. Jason is a faithful narrator, very bright, with poet instincts and aspirations, without the smart-alecky Holden Caulfield approach.Mitchell based this story, on his own rough and tumble childhood. This was also his follow-up, to his masterpiece, Cloud Atlas, and clearly proved and solidified his reputation for being one of the best English novelists working today.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Overall good read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Our narrator, Jason Taylor is thirteen years old at the beginning of 1982 and tells us about his daily life, his family, his experiences with boys in his neighbourhood of Black Swan Green, a fictional village in Worcestershire, England. Jason is an especially sensitive boy who publishes his poetry in the local parish bulletin, but as he tells us early on, writing poetry is "gay" so he does so under a pseudonym and is careful not to let his secret out. And with good reason; having developed a speech impediment, Jason sees his popularity sink over the course of the following year, becoming the victim of relentless bullying, while weathering through a tense environment at home, where his mother and father are continually at war with one another, with intimations that Mr Taylor has taken out a second mortgage on the family home secretly and that there might be another woman in the wings. This is very much a coming of age story, and what made it especially appealing to me is that it rung very true and seemed all too familiar. Like David Mitchell, I too was born in 1969 and saw life through a similar perspective as the author reveals to us in the in this semi-autobiographical novel. For me, the Falklands War was something happening very far away from Montreal, Canada, but for Jason it's an exciting event, and an opportunity for hero worship; his reverence and trust in Margaret Thatcher is endearing, and tells us not to rely entirely on this inexperienced narrator. Many references to pop culture, including the music and pastimes favoured by adolescents were similar to what I experienced, which may have influenced me in giving this novel what is I consider to be a high rating, as I would probably otherwise have given it a four-star rating. Mitchell writes very well, and very convincingly, as well as realistically; toward the end of the story, our hero makes large strides towards asserting himself and figuring out what his priorities are, while the rest of his world remains as imperfect and fragile as it is in real life. Definitely recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Quite an enjoyable book, this one was. After The Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt, it was quite refreshing. This was my first book by Mitchell, and I enjoyed the writing style for the most part. The way the chapters joined together threw me a little at the beginning -- they didn't necessarily flow from one to the other, but instead seemed more like little vignettes one after the other -- but after getting used to that I rather liked it. I thought there were some brilliant phrases mixed in throughout...I wish I would've highlighted or written some of them down. I liked reading through the eyes of a 13-year-old boy, although I'm not sure I envy him that period of his life. Boys can be so cruel to one another (as can girls, nowadays). I also have a close friend who stutters (she prefers the term 'speech impediment'), and I guess I probably never stopped to think just how much anxiety certain situations must produce.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another good story from David Mitchell; I'm surprised I had missed this one for so long, since I'm usually pretty diligent about reading his books shortly after publication. A great, amusing narrator, matched with Mitchell's usual lively writing and just a hint of the fantastic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    David Mitchell always amazes me. Each work or his that I read has a unique style and voice that is perfectly executed. Black Swan Green is a coming of age book and doesn't have the mind twisting plot elements of Cloud Atlas or The Bone Clocks, but is more of a quiet story about a teenage boy just trying to navigate all the problems that go along with adolescence. A great read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A clever and enjoyable bildungsroman.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    What is beauty? What is life all about? The questions that generate and resonate from the years when coming of age are present in this fine novel. The young boy at the center of this story is fascinating in his experiences and recognitions of life and love and the joy of existence. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mensmerizing, nuanced & poignant coming of age story about a young boy with a stuttering problem growing up in 1980's England. The book takes place during his 13th year and it is awe-inspiring how Mitchell, telling the story in first person, subtly and gradually matures his character's way of thinking about and relating to the world. Mitchell is a mster. Black Swan Green has entered my personal pantheon of favorite books.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Ordered for the lovely cover and title, the first chapter was promising,but plot and character development slow moving and not enthralling as anticipated.No dead horse or dog in this one, simply a way-un-needed dead kitten...and more sad miseries.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved this, not really what I was expecting. Surprisingly poetic but a straightforward read. Although I'm too young to remember that early in the 80s, the book captures the monocultural, village life that I recall very well from my youth - definitely brings back how awful early secondary school life is and the social stratas between kids which are a minefield to navigate.

    Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    It was going so well. And then he goes to Mrs. Commelynck's house. And it's just the author pontificating about art, writing, poetry, etc. Bit of a disappointment there. In addition, it didn't seem to know where it was going.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Black Swan Green is a very enjoyable story of a year in the life of Jason Taylor, a young teenager trying to make sense of life in a village in Worcestershire in 1982. The story is made up of several vignettes that fit loosely together to tell Jason's story, which is one of trying to fit in, bullying, trouble at home and overcoming a speech impediment.Mitchell really gets into the nitty gritty of secondary school life, a lot of which was quite painful to read (I would never in a million years go back to my school days!). But he imbues the story with so much warmth and humour that it's not a completely depressing read.This did take me longer than usual to read, but that's more because I'm finding it difficult to concentrate on much in the current pandemic, rather than because of any defects in the book. Much recommended, especially if you've read Mitchell's other works and like playing 'spot the character from [insert book title]'.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Bogen handler om Jason, en dreng på 13 år. Hans poppularitet i skolen, hvor han bliver medlem i banden Spøgelser, og dermed poppulær. Hans ikke så poppulære ven, Moran og deres forhold og oplevelser. Hans hemmeligheder: Han stammer og skriver digte under psedonymet Eliot Bolivar. Hans fortolkning af livet, de problemer han udsættes for og de tanker han gør sig undervejs i bogen. Hvordan han hele tiden skal tænke på døden/hans stammen. Hans udvikling, hvordan han bliver sælvstændig. Hans beundring for hans fætter Hugo, på den ene siden vil han være som Hugo, på den anden side er det lidt for farligt. Til sidst får han sit første kys, ved skoleballet.Rigtig god bog!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I listened to the audiobook through OneDigital, an iPhone app with a partnership with the library. The app itself was a little buggy -- it would forget where I had left off frequently, so frequently that I began saving bookmarks every single time I knew I was about to stop listening so that I could find my place again; it also needed me to sign in every few launches, so it wasn't the smoothest of listening experiences.But the book was fantastic. I enjoyed the personification of Jason's stammer as Hangman and the travails of being a teenage boy with an older sister in the 80s. I thought he captured that awkward straddling of full teenage-hood and the childhood being left behind, in Jason's case a little more quickly as his parent's relationship deteriorates and he deals with the Black Swan Green bullies. As usual, with a David Mitchell book, there are threads in the story that rear their heads and then disappear beneath the surface of the story that hint at a larger, more complex version of reality than meets the eye, but unlike Bone Clocks or Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet they are left buried like the apocryphal children who have fallen through the ice into the pond.Having heard David Mitchell speak about his own troubles overcoming a stammer on his Bone Clocks tour, I can imagine this is an intensely personal novel for him and while it never reaches the incandescent heights of some of his other books, I really enjoyed spending a year with Jason Taylor.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a beautifully crafted coming of age novel. Mitchell uses language in a way that takes you to the person, place, time, event that he is describing. You can feel how much he loves words through the way he plays with them and allows them to tumble into each other. The story is set at the time of the Falklands War, and is full of references to things from my own childhood - TV shows, sweets, games, school rituals. It felt very familiar, and at times uncomfortably true. As with all the Mitchell novels I've now read, there are links forwards and backwards to his other books, but this novel is less embedded in his ongoing saga of time travel and eternal souls. Black Swan Green is a smaller room in Mitchell's literary mansion where a few supporting characters can hang out and do their own thing. Worth reading in its own right, though.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Read 2nd time 2/16, for book club. Colloquially British all the way. A fine coming of age story, infused with author's own experiences.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Brings back all of my wretched memories of the bullies and hazing with a vengence! And makes me grateful that I made it through that period in my life without even more scars. At turns poignant and funny, this story is told in a year-long stretch of something resembling short stories. Low key but luminous.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the story about Jason Taylor at the age of 13/14 how he struggles with the adolescence, with his family life which is falling apart and being an outsider. The story is told in chapters which refer to the months of a year. Jason isn't accepted among his classmates. Firstly he can't express himself properly due to his stammering and therefore being shy. Furthermore he is a kind of a daydreamer and when he tries to escape the reality he surely stumbles among a fight where at least he is one of the victim. Only at the end of the story he finds the courage to fight back.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Awww, ya just feel for this kid. Young people have rich inner lives. They may not be able to communicate them eloquently but nonetheless, the depth of observation is there, just waiting for the right age and/or the right words to put it in perspective.Then there's the whole David Mitchell universe aspect to the book. A young Hugo Lamb, an old Eva Ayrs and probably a hundred other connections to his other novels. I adore David Mitchell and the Jason Taylor in him still.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Not enough can be said about the brilliance of David Mitchell's writing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the most straightforward Mitchell novel I've encountered - it's a coming of age story told in 13 chapters, each representing a month in the schoolboy protagonist's life. it's interesting to watch his relationships evolve and his impressions of the people around him change chapter to chapter. Full circle, January to January, some elements are radically different and others are much the same I'm the end, but Mitchell avoids the triteness I was worried would wrap things up. I've heard this compared to Catcher in the Rye and I would say that's apt, though I found Jason far more likable than Holden.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5

    A re-read, after reading Bone Clocks last year, I wanted to revisit and see what threads I missed. 
    This is still a lovingly detailed tale showing the trails of growing up in a small community. I had remembered Hugo being in the book more, but no. The book is charming and still realistic, difficult to pull off, and it never falls into sentimentality.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was looking for a book to read on the train and my sister insisted that this was the one I wanted. I didn't know it at the time, but she was right. This book is wonderful.