Author:Deborah Lawrenson
In 1944 Tom Wainwright, a British soldier, arrives in the small Italian town of Petriano. The war is nearly over, and in the lull before the Allied troops move further north to capture Florence Tom forges a friendship with the Parini family - and in particular with the eldest daughter, Giuliana. When the war ends he chooses to stay in Italy, planning to build a life with the woman with whom he has fallen deeply in love, but in the chaotic, tragic fallout of the end of the Second World War his hopes are dashed.
Fifty years later Isabel Wainwright, Tom's daughter, sets off for Petriano herself, to attend a ceremony naming a piazza in her father's honour. But Isabel isn't so much going to represent her father as to try and find him - for she and her mother have heard nothing of him since, nearly twenty years earlier, he went out one day and never returned. She doesn't even know whether her father is dead or alive, but hopes that by discovering something of his past, she can build a picture of the man she hardly knew.
A superbly crafted novel that deserves to be called the new Captain Corelli or perhaps the new Birdsong...Moving, elegiac and lyrical
—— Daily MailThis is a most wonderful novel. Evocative and haunting - it will keep you enthralled and intrigued right to the end
—— Amazon.co.uk reader reviewA real treat to enjoy, best washed down with a big glass of Chianti and bucket of olives
—— Amazon.co.uk reader reviewThe scenes in the Italian countryside are beautifully written and the psychology of the characters are absolutely convincing. I was moved to tears
—— Amazon.co.uk reader reviewA gracefully written narrative, ideal for those interested in knowing the Vietnam story and looking for a measured analysis of these still hotly contested events
—— Howard Jones , University of AlbamaA transcendentally harmonious and compassionate work
—— Times Literary SupplementA surprisingly tender book... Amid the terror a classic story about love sneaks through: love lost, love imagined, love morphed into madness
—— New York Times Book ReviewBeautifully written... It puts a human face on the suffering inflicted by the Taliban... Disturbing and mesmerizing, The Swallows of Kabul will stay with you long after you've finished it
—— San Francisco ChronicleRiveting... Spare, taut, and pristinely clear prose... An uncanny knack for making moral tension palpable... Extraordinarily moving
—— Philadelphia InquirerA novel very much in the tradition of Albert Camus, not only in its humanism and concern with the consequences of individual choices but also in its determination to bear witness to the absurdities of daily life... [A] chilling portrait of fundamentalism run amok and its fallout on ordinary people
—— New York Times
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