In the Orchard, the Swallows - Tapa blanda

'A jewel that emits more light than seems possible ... has the timeless quality of a myth.' --Hisham Matar

'A book of great beauty - and steel ... prose that is astonishingly taut and evocative.' --Kamila Shamsie

'I think Peter Hobbs is one of the most fearless, most original and most graceful novelists at work right now ... A story of impossible and dangerous love across class, politics, and hierarchy in Pakistan and about the risks, the importance and the unexpected hospitality in the act of storytelling, it's even more proof, if we needed it after his striking debut, The Short Day Dying, of his ability to do anything he likes with voice and to treat form with the elegance and resonance that delivers both these novels as contemporary classics.' --Ali Smith, New Statesman Books of the Year

'My favourite piece of fiction this year ... This is a rare, ambitious and above all brave book. Few authors would attempt such a pure and guileless project. Fewer still could produce such a beautiful, tonic read.' -- Sarah Hall, The Big Issue in the North Books of the Year

'A terrifically fierce love story. Rarely do contemporary novels possess such refractive power and emotional sincerity. What an acute, brave book.'
--Sarah Hall

'Hobbs's prose is achingly beautiful, and the simple storytelling of the unnamed young, broken man is a touching counterpoint to the harsh landscape and social conditions under which the people of the region live.' --Irish Times

In the foothills of a mountain range in northern Pakistan is a beautiful orchard. Swallows wheel and dive silently over the branches, and the scent of jasmine threads through the air. Pomegranates hang heavy, their skins darkening to a deep crimson. Neglected now, the trees are beginning to grow wild, their fruit left to spoil on the branches.

Many miles away, a frail young man is flung out of prison gates. Looking up, scanning the horizon for swallows in flight, he stumbles and collapses in the roadside dust. His ravaged body tells the story of fifteen years of brutality.

Just one image has held and sustained him through the dark times - the thought of the young girl who had left him dumbstruck with wonder all those years ago, whose eyes were lit up with life.

A tale of tenderness in the face of great and corrupt power, In The Orchard, The Swallows is a heartbreaking novel written in prose of exquisite stillness and beauty.