Graham Swift Books In Order

Novels

  1. The Sweet Shop Owner (1980)
  2. Shuttlecock (1981)
  3. Waterland (1983)
  4. Out of This World (1988)
  5. Ever After (1992)
  6. Last Orders (1996)
  7. The Light of Day (2002)
  8. Tomorrow (2007)
  9. Wish You Were Here (2011)
  10. Mothering Sunday (2016)
  11. Here We Are (2020)

Omnibus

  1. Waterland / Last Orders (1999)

Collections

  1. Learning to Swim (1982)
  2. Poolside (2007)
  3. England and Other Stories (2014)

Novellas

  1. Chemistry (2008)

Anthologies edited

  1. The Magic Wheel (1985)

Non fiction

  1. Making an Elephant (2009)

Novels Book Covers

Omnibus Book Covers

Collections Book Covers

Novellas Book Covers

Anthologies edited Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Graham Swift Books Overview

The Sweet Shop Owner

In the sweet shop Willy Chapman was free, absolved from all responsibility, and he ran his sweet shop like his life quietly, steadfastly, devotedly. It was a bargain struck between Chapman and his beautiful, emotionally injured wife a bargain based on unexpressed, inexpressible love and on a courageous acceptance of life’s deprivation…
threatened only by Dorry, their clever, angry, unforgiving daughter. ‘Moving…
Through the succinctly evoked provincial decades one of the engrossing features is the difficulty of love and of communication between generations’ ‘London Review of Books’. ‘A remarkable novel…
There is a touch of Joyce in Graham Swift’s revelation of the hidden poetry of small men’s lives’ ‘New York Times Book Review’.

Shuttlecock

Prentis, senior clerk in the ‘dead crimes’ department of police archives, is becoming more and more confused. Alienated from his wife and children, and obsessed by his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, Prentis feels increasingly unsettled as his enigmatic boss, Mr Quinn, turns his investigation towards him and his father. Gradually Prentis suspects that his father’s breakdown and Quinn’s menacing behaviour are connected and the link is to be found in his father’s memoirs, ‘Shuttlecock‘. ‘Excellent, profound’ Alan Hollinghurst, ‘London Review of Books’. ‘An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour’ ‘Sunday Times’. ‘A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession’ ‘Daily Telegraph’. ‘Swift’s central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story and character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour ‘Shuttlecock‘ is thoroughly and beautifully odd always honours them’ ‘Times Literary Supplement’. ‘Serious, moving and often very funny indeed’ ‘Observer’.

Waterland

In the years since its first publication, in 1983, ‘Waterland‘ has established itself as one of the classics of twentieth century British literature: a visionary tale of England’s Fen country; a sinuous meditation on the workings of history; and a family story startling in its detail and universal in its reach. This edition includes an introduction, by the author, written to celebrate the book’s 25th anniversary. ‘Graham Swift has mapped his ‘Waterland‘ like a new Wessex. He appropriates the Fens as ‘Moby Dick’ did whaling or ‘Wuthering Heights’ the moors. This is a beautiful, serious and intelligent novel, admirably ambitious and original’ ‘Observer’. ‘Perfectly controlled, superbly written. ‘Waterland‘ is original, compelling and narration of the highest order’ ‘Guardian’. ‘A 300 page tour de force…
A burst of exuberant fictive energy’ ‘Evening Standard’. ”Waterland‘ is a formidably intelligent book, animated by an impressive, angry pity at what human creatures are capable of doing to one another in the name of love and need. The most powerful novel I have read for some time’ ‘New York Review of Books’.

Out of This World

Out of This World interweaves the history of a blighted family with the tragic and ludicrous history of the twentieth century. Its alternating narrators are a father and daughter each obsessed with the other and irrevocably estranged surveying their losses and grievances on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

‘A moving, ingenious and often very funny tale that takes us deep into his characters’ wounded, resilient hearts with breathtaking virtuosity…
rich, complicated, joyful, arresting.’ USA Today

Ever After

Dazzling in its structure and shattering in its emotional force, Graham Swift’s Ever After spans two centuries and settings from the adulterous bedrooms of postwar Paris to the contemporary entanglements in the groves of academe. It is the story of Bill Unwin, a man haunted by the death of his beautify wife and a survivor himself of a recent brush with mortality. And although it touches on Darwin and dinosaurs, bees and bridge builders, the true subject of Ever After is nothing less than the eternal question, ‘Why should things matter?”Ever After is explicitly concerned with historical investigation, love, death, family affairs…
. It moves quickly, and it vibrates with feeling and thought.’ Wall Street Journal

Last Orders

Four men gather in a London pub. They have taken it upon themselves to carry out the Last Orders of Jack Dodds, master butcher, and deliver his ashes to the sea. As they drive towards the fulfillment of their mission, their errand becomes an extraordinary journey into their collective and individual pasts. Braiding these men’s voices, and that of Jack’s widow, into a choir of sorrow and resentment, passion and regret, Swift creates a testament to a changing England and to enduring mortality.

‘Swift has involved us in real, lived lives…
Quietly, but with conviction, he seeks to affirm the values of decency, loyalty, love.’ New York Review of Books

‘A beautiful book…
a novel that speaks profoundly of human need and tenderness. Even the most cynical will be warmed by it.’ San Francisco Chronicle

The Light of Day

The Light of Day combines a powerful love story and a narrative of intense suspense into a brilliant and tender novel about what drives people to extremes of emotion. As in his Booker winning novel Last Orders, Swift transforms ordinary lives through extraordinary storytelling. This new novel from Graham Swift his first since the Booker Prize winning Last Orders is the work of a master storyteller. The Light of Day is a luminous and gripping tale of love, murder and redemption. George Webb is a divorced ex policeman turned private investigator, a man whose prospects seemed in ruins not so long ago. Following the course of a single, dazzling day in George’s life, the novel illuminates not only his past but his now all consuming relationship with a former client. Intimate and intricate in its evocation of daily existence, The Light of Day achieves a singular intensity and almost unbearable suspense. Tender and humorous in its depiction of life s surface, Swift explores the depths and extremities of what lies within us and how, for better or worse, it s never too late to discover what they are. Excerpt from The Light of DayTwo years ago and a little more. October still, but a day like today, blue and clear and crisp. Rita opened my door and said, Mrs. Nash. I was already on my feet, buttoning my jacket. Most of them have no comparisons to go on it s their first time. It must feel like coming to a doctor. They expected something shabbier, seedier, more shaming. The tidy atmosphere, Rita s doing, surprises and reassures them. And the vase of flowers. White chrysanthemums, I recall. Mrs. Nash, please have a seat. I could be some high street solicitor. A fountain pen in my fingers. Doctor, solicitor marriage guidance counsellor. You have to be a bit of all three. The usual look of plucked up courage, swallowed back hesitation, of being somewhere they d rather not be. My husband is seeing another woman.

Tomorrow

From Graham Swift, Booker Prize winning author of Last Orders, comes a masterful and compassionate novel of rare emotional power and narrative skill. On a midsummer’s night, Paula lies awake beside her sleeping husband. She and Mike have been married for twenty five years, a good marriage; they have two teenage children, Nick and Kate, peacefully sleeping in their own nearby rooms. But Paula s eyes won t close: the next morning she and Mike have to tell the children something that will redefine all their lives. Recalling the years before and after her children were born, Paula begins a story that is both a glowing celebration of love possessed and a moving acknowledgement of the fear of loss, of the fragilities, illusions and secrets on which even our most intimate sense of who we are can rest. As day draws nearer, Paula s intensely personal thoughts seem to touch on all our Tomorrows. Brilliantly distilling half a century into one suspenseful night, as tender in its tone as it is deep in its resonance, Tomorrow is a magical exploration of coupledom, parenthood and individuality, and a unique meditation on the mysteries of happiness and belonging. It s a week past your sixteenth birthday. By a fluke that s become something of an embarrassment and that some people will say wasn t a fluke at all, you were born in Gemini. I m not an especially superstitious woman. I married a scientist. But one little thing I ll do Tomorrow today, I mean, but for a little while still I can keep up the illusion is cross my fingers. Everything s quiet, the house is still. Mike and I have anticipated this moment, we ve talked about it and rehearsed it in our heads so many times that recently it s sometimes seemed like a relief: it s actually come. On the other hand, it s monstrous, it s outrageous and it s in our power to postpone it. But after their sixteenth birthday , we said, and let s be strict about it. Perhaps you may even appreciate our discipline and tact. Let s be strict, but let s not be cruel. Give them a week. Let them have their birthday, their last birthday of that old life. You re sleeping the deep sleep of teenagers. I just about remember it. I wonder how you ll sleep Tomorrow. from TomorrowFrom the Hardcover edition.

Wish You Were Here

From the prizewinning author of the acclaimed Last Orders, The Light of Day, and Waterland, a powerfully moving new novel set in present day England, but against the background of a global ‘war on terror’ and about things that touch our human core. On an autumn day in 2006, on the Isle of Wight, Jack Luxton once a farmer, now the proprietor of a seaside caravan park receives the news that his brother Tom, not seen for years, has been killed in combat in Iraq. The news will have its far reaching effects for Jack and his wife, Ellie, and compel Jack to make a crucial journey: to receive his brother’s remains, but also to return to the land of his past and of his most secret, troubling memories. A gripping, hauntingly intimate, and compassionate story that moves toward a fiercely suspenseful climax, Wish You Were Here translates the stuff of headlines into heartwrenching personal truth.

Learning to Swim

The men and women in these spare, Kafkaesque stories are engaged in struggles that are no less brutal because they are fought by proxy. In Graham Swift’s taut prose, these quiet combative relationships between a mismatched couple; an aging doctor and his hypochondriacal patient; a teenage refugee swept up in the conflict between an oppressively sentimental father and his rebellious son become a microcosm for all human cruelty and need.’Swift proves throughout this ambitious collection that he is a master of his language and the construction of provocative situations.’ Houston Chronicle

Poolside

Poolside is a waterproof collection of fourteen stories about the satisfactions and tribulations of swimming lessons, summer scenes at club pools, chance encounters at the rec center and just plain floating. The perfect companion for a day of dipping and people watching, Poolside is as necessary as sunscreen for achieving maximum Poolside bliss. Poolside features internationally acclaimed authors Alice Adams, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, David Foster Wallace, Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever, and AM Homes, as well as emerging voices such as Julie Orringer and Andrea Lee.

Making an Elephant

In his first ever work of non fiction, the Booker Prize winning author of ‘Last Orders’ and ‘Waterland’ delivers a warm and generous account of what has influenced and inspired him over the years. As a novelist, Graham Swift delights in the possibilities of the human voice, imagining his way into the minds and hearts of an extraordinary range of characters. In ‘Making an Elephant‘, his first ever work of non fiction, the voice is his own. As generous in its scope as it is acute in its observations, this highly personal book is a singular and open spirited account of a writer’s life. Swift brings together a richly varied selection of essays, portraits, poetry, and interviews, full of insights into his passions and motivations, and wise about the friends, family, and other writers who have mattered to him over the years. Kazuo Ishiguro advises on how to choose a guitar, Salman Rushdie arrives for Christmas under guard, and Ted Hughes shares the secrets of a Devon river. There are private moments, too, with long dead writers, as well as musings on history and memory that readers of Swift’s novels will recognize and love. A journey through place and time, ‘Making an Elephant‘ is a book of encounters, between a son and his father, between an author and his younger selves, between writer and reader, and between friends. It brims with charm and candour, and tells of alertness to experience and a true engagement with words; in short, with what it means to feel that writing and reading are an essential part of living.

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