Black Swan, London, 1993

This novel  took me a long time to read. On the other hand I couldn´t stop reading it. It is set in rural Devon in some hot summer in the 70ies, but the life on a farm as described here seems to reach far far back in the “mists of time”. So it reminds me of “Herbstmilch” by Anna Wimschneider , though 12-year-old Alison is, of course, a different character. Supposedly, everything is seen through her adolescent eyes and mind, but she is obviously ommniscient, as far as the thoughts of all her family members and even the village rector goes. This makes the reader feel a bit uneasy, but Pears doesn´t care, as long as his private world unfolds. As critics have found, he has a Proustian view of things; again this doesn´t go well with the mind of a 12-ear-old girl. But his intense, unusual way of describing situations and feelings is certainly suggestive.