What the press wrote about Zwaluwen

'Zwaluwen is a novel about tough, monotonous farming life. The characters are real; a touching book'

Vlabin

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Zwaluwen by Nico de Beer is a strongly recommended read to anyone who likes to mirror himself in a story with some psychological depth. It is the story of a boy, Erik Schuurmans, who is at the beginning of his adolescence. It is set in a farmer's family in the late sixties.

The title refers to the main theme: the cycle of life and death. There is a fixed pattern noticeable in the life of the swallows that live in and near the farm of Erik's father. The seasons decide everything for these birds of passage. Erik's father is obsessed with this. He cherishes the yearly arrival of the swallows and even removes a window-pane from his cowshed to welcome them. For him the swallows are symbolic for a way of life that so closely resembles his own. A life of hard working, lots of sacrifices and only little reward in terms of social contacts.

Zwaluwen portrays a lifestyle that should be very recognizable to anyone who experienced the period described.

Leydraden

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'This story about the Schuurmans family offers a lot of variety and keeps the reader in its grip from page one'

Perigrinus