Black Swan Green: David Mitchell

"Black Swan Green"

Finished in 2007
I've been a quiet fan of David Mitchell's work since reading his first book Ghostwritten several years ago, although I found his last book Cloud Atlas a bit unsatisfying - it was inventive and intriguing but it didn't seem to add up to anything at the end. Anyway, his publishers in the UK at least seem to give him great covers and so I thought that I would give this one a try. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read the story of a 13 year old boy and I found it a bit difficult to like at the start, but then partway in I was suddenly hooked. I think that at his best David Mitchell is very readable, and while there seemed to be a few cliches (and a connection with his previous book which doesn't seem to add up to anything - Mitchell seems to like odd connections between things) in the end the writing and the story has enough charm and interest to sustain me to the end of the book. So all in all I'd recommend it.