Black Swan Green

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Title Black Swan Green

First edition cover
Author	David Mitchell
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Semi-autobiographical, Bildungsroman novel
Publisher	Random House
Released	April 2006
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	294 pp (first edition, paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 1-4000-6379-5 (first edition, paperback)
Preceded by	Cloud Atlas

Black Swan Green is a semi-autobiographical bildungsroman novel written by David Mitchell. It was published in April 2006 in the U.S. and May 2006 in the UK. The novel's thirteen chapters each represent one month -- from January 1982 through January 1983 -- in the life of 13-year-old Worcestershire boy Jason Taylor. The novel is written from the perspective of Taylor and employs many teen colloquialisms and popular-culture references from early-1980s England.

[edit] Allusions/references to other works

The book contains references and characters from other works by Mitchell, as is characteristic of his novels:

• Neal Brose, a pupil at the same school as Taylor, appears as an adult in Ghostwritten.
• Eva van Crommelynck, who tutors Taylor on poetry and life, also appears in Cloud Atlas.
• Mark Badbury, a pupil at the same school as Taylor, also appears as an adult in the short story 'Preface' published in the [UK] Daily Telegraph on 29.04.06.
• Another pupil, Clive Pike (as an adult) and school headmaster Mr. Nixon (both corporeally and disembodied) appear in the short story 'Acknowledgments' published in Prospect (magazine), No. 115, Oct. 2005

[edit] External links

• Review of Black Swan Green: The Times (London)
• Review of Black Swan Green: The New Yorker
• Review of Black Swan Green: The New York Times
• Review of Black Swan Green: The Observer
• Review of Black Swan Green: Kirkus Reviews
• Review of Black Swan Green: www.thebookseller.com