大衛·米切爾是英國著名作傢，歐美文學界公認的新一代小說大師。1969年生於英格蘭伍斯特郡，在肯特大學主修英美文學、比較文學。曾在日本廣島擔任工程係學生的英文教師八年。米切爾博采村上春樹、奧斯特、卡爾維諾、博爾赫斯諸大師作品之所長，自成一派，其作波詭雲譎，靈氣無窮。處女作《幽靈代筆》（1999）轟動歐美文學界，榮獲萊斯文學奬，入圍《衛報》處女作奬決選；《九號夢》（2001）入圍布剋奬決選，米切爾也因此書被評為英國最佳青年小說傢；《雲圖》（2004）榮膺英國國傢圖書奬最佳小說奬和理查與茱蒂讀書俱樂部年度選書，同時入圍布剋奬、星雲奬、剋拉剋奬決選；《綠野黑天鵝》（2006）獲得美國圖書館協會最佳青少年圖書和《學校圖書館報》最佳圖書稱號，入圍科斯塔圖書奬和《洛杉磯時報》圖書奬；《雅各布·德佐特的一韆個鞦天》（2010）問鼎英聯邦作傢奬。米切爾小說原創性十足，為二十一世紀英語小說開啓瞭全新的模式與風貌。2007年，以傑齣的文學成就被美國《時代》雜誌評為“世界100位最具影響力的人物”之一。

From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new.

Black Swan tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran Lps, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons.

Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date.