Black Swan Green - Tapa blanda

His wildest ride yet . . . a singular achievement, from an author of extraordinary ambition and skill . . . For the third time in a row, Mitchell has excelled himself. - Independent on Sunday on CLOUD ATLAS A tremendous novel . . . one of the most shamelessly exciting books imaginable - Philip Hensher, Spectator on CLOUD ATLAS Exceptional . . . clever, unusual, gripping and beautifully written - Literary Review on NUMBER9DREAM Resounds to the same marvellous chatter of voices that marked out Ghostwritten, his outstanding first novel - Observer on NUMBER9DREAM The best first novel I have read in ages . . . the novel beguiles, informs, shocks and captivates. - William Boyd, Daily Telegraph Books of the Fabulously atmospheric and wryly perceptive . . . a huge new talent - Guardian Books of the Year on GHOSTWRITTEN

Jason Taylor is 13, doomed to be growing up in the most boring family in the deadest village (Black Swan Green) in the dullest county (Worcestershire) in the most tedious nation (England) on earth. And he stammers. 13 chapters, each as self-contained as a short story, follow 13 months in his life as he negotiates the pitfalls of school and home and contends with bullies, girls and family politics. In the distance, the Falklands conflict breaks out; close at hand, the village mobilises against a gypsy camp. And through Jason's eyes, we see what he doesn't know he knows - and watch unfold what will make him wish his life had been as uneventful as he had believed. Vividly capturing the mood of the times - high unemployment, Cold War politics and the sunset of agrarian England - this is at once a portrait of an era and of an age: the black hole between childhood and teenagerdom.