Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
What a beautiful coming of age novel, told with Mitchell’s pateience, keen sense of observation, obsession with the dialect of different ages, and his not-quite-in-focus-while-passing-through-the-background supernatural influence.

Black Swan Green tells us of a year in the life of a teenage boy in the small British Hamlet of Black Swan Green. He has a strange encounter with a Baba Yaga, probably dies, his dad leaves his mom, he deals with bullies and class and learns about girls and money and generally gets a year older. There’s just so much good stuff here, even wrapped in a fairly traditional bildungsroman.

I’m eager for David Mitchell to write more, because he is really quite good.