{"product_id":"9780812974010","title":"Black Swan Green","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eBy the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Bone Clocks\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCloud Atlas \u003c\/i\u003e| Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eSelected by \u003ci\u003eTime \u003c\/i\u003eas One of the Ten Best Books of the Year\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e| A \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News, \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Kirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e| A \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize Finalist | Winner of the ALA Alex Award | Finalist for the Costa Novel Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlack Swan Green\u003c\/i\u003e 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\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eenacted 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, \u003ci\u003eBlack Swan Green \u003c\/i\u003eis David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eBlack Swan Green\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “[David Mitchell has created] one of the most endearing, smart, and funny young narrators ever to rise up from the pages of a novel. . . . The always fresh and brilliant writing will carry readers back to their own childhoods. . . . This enchanting novel makes us remember exactly what it was like.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “[David Mitchell is a] prodigiously daring and imaginative young writer. . . . As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “[A] brilliant new novel . . . In Jason, Mitchell creates an evocation yet authentically adolescent voice.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Alternately nostalgic, funny and heartbreaking.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Great Britain’s \u003ci\u003eCatcher in the Rye\u003c\/i\u003e—and another triumph for one of the present age’s most interesting and accomplished novelists.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “This book is so entertainingly strange, so packed with activity, adventures, and diverting banter, that you only realize as the extraordinary novel concludes that the timid boy has grown before your eyes into a capable young man.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47020814827760,"sku":"9780812974010","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780812974010_p0.jpg?v=1763809379","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780812974010","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}