Mitchell surprises the reader again. Meadow of the Black Swan is different from all his novels. This book is filled with allusions to all significant works of world literature and yet stands apart. And primarily because the main character, Jason Taylor, is a boy who secretly writes poetry and struggles with a stutter, although he reminds us of the heroes of Salinger, Bradbury, Harper Lee, but at the same time unlike any of them. Thirteen chapters of the novel lead us from one event in Taylor's life to another. Thirteen months - from one January birthday to another - it took Jason Taylor to grow up and from rushing about, uncertain myself as a teenager to become an adult. From a duckling to a swan.