They Came Like Swallows

Elizabeth Morison is an ordinary woman. Yet to eight-year-old Bunny, his mother is the centre of his universe. To his older brother, Robert, she is someone he must protect against the dangers of the outside world. And to James Morison, his wife is the foundation on which his family rests and life without her is unimaginable.

William Maxwell's unique and moving family portrait confirms his reputation as one of the twentieth century's finest novelists.

William Maxwell was born on 16th August 1908 in Illinois. He was the author of a distinguished body of work: six novels, three short story collections, an autobiographical memoir and a collection of literary essays and reviews. ANew Yorkereditor for forty years, he helped to shape the prose and careers of John Updike, John Cheever, John O'Hara and Eudora Welty. His novel,So Long, See You Tomorrowwon the American Book Award, and he received the PEN/Malamud Award.

'As the voices of Austen, Turgenev and Tolstoy have survived, so will Maxwell's' The Times