The Wild Swans

PUBLICATION DATE: 14 OCTOBER 2021

Beautiful, lyrical and lovely  JOANNE HARRIS

A girl loses her beloved brothers when they are turned into swans by her wicked stepmother. She embarks on a vital quest with one purpose: to find them and turn them back into boys again.

But the task is complicated. She must pick nettles with her bare hands and turn them to yarn, to spin and knit into shirts for each of the eleven brothers. And all the while she cannot speak, for if she does, even so much as a whisper, it will be like a knife in the heart of each swan-boy. And so she knits, silent. And where there is silence people will put words.

The Wild Swans is a beautiful and lyrical extended version of the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen in Jackie Morris’s enchanting retelling, complete with delicate watercolour paintings throughout this new edition. A story about love and bravery, about how to listen, and about how, when we do not listen, we hear what we wish to hear.

Originally published in 2015, this book been completely re-designed for Unbound by Alison O’Toole, designer of The Unwinding and The Lost Words and contains some new illustrations by Jackie.

The new Unbound edition will be a small hardback of 384 pages (177 x 145 mm - the same size as The Unwinding). Beautifully printed in full colour throughout, it will contain a silk marker ribbon, specially printed endpapers and a foil design on the case, drawn by Jackie.

Publication date: 14 October 2021

All pre-orders made via Unbound will come specially gift wrapped using soft paper featuring a new bear & swan specially design by Alison O’Toole.

Pre-orders despatched shortly before publication date.