Twelve Post-War Tales - by Graham Swift (Hardcover)

About the Book

A "collection of stories ... about [British] lives shaped and haunted by war. Here are the soldiers and doctors and veterans, wives and lovers and children, who have been affected in ways both subtle and profound by the cataclysms of our times. In the aftermath of World War II, a young Jewish private, stationed in Germany, seeks the truth about lost family members. In the 1960s, a father focuses on his daughter's wedding even as the Cuban Missile Crisis approaches the brink of global disaster. On September 11th, a maid working for U.S. Embassy staff in London wonders if her birth on the day of the Kennedy assassination determined the course of her life. And at the height of pandemic lockdown, a respiratory disease specialist comes out of retirement and is faced with a formative childhood memory"--

Book Synopsis

An exquisite new collection of stories from the Booker Prize-winning author, about lives shaped and haunted by war

Here are the soldiers and doctors and veterans, wives and lovers and children, who have been affected in ways both subtle and profound by the cataclysms of our times. In the aftermath of World War II, a young Jewish private, stationed in Germany, seeks the truth about lost family members. In the 1960s, a father focuses on his daughter's wedding even as the Cuban Missile Crisis approaches the brink of global disaster. On September 11th, a maid working for U.S. Embassy staff in London wonders if her birth on the day of the Kennedy assassination determined the course of her life. And at the height of pandemic lockdown, a respiratory disease specialist comes out of retirement and is faced with a formative childhood memory.

These stories show history in the making, the reverberations of each personal loss and triumph set across the sweep of decades. Tender, humane, rich with humor, grief and moments of grace and contemplation, Twelve Post-War Tales is a collection of masterpieces in miniature.

Review Quotes

"Quite wonderful. Such grace and clarity--I'm filled with admiration." --Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials

"Bravura. . . . Word-perfect. . . . Immensely readable. . . . Swift is a master of dialogue who delights in the possibilities of the human voice. . . . His archly modulated, precise prose, reminiscent at times of Kazuo Ishiguro's, has lost none of its power. . . . From start to finish, Twelve Post-War Tales is a marvel of the storyteller's art." --Ian Thomson, Financial Times

"Wonderful--both heartbreaking and generous. . . . The characters in this collection share their thoughts and memories with the reader as though with a close friend, and the warmth of their confidences balances against their sadness. We feel we've been in the trenches with them, even when a story has gone no farther than the living room." --Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

"Setting the seemingly ordinary lives of his characters against the great, tumultuous moments of history--from the Second World War to the Cuban Missile Crisis, September 11th and the Covid pandemic--the Booker Prize winner traces a tender and moving web of connections across decades." --Financial Times (Most Anticipated Books of 2025)

"Like its title, the stories in this collection are deceptively simple. . . . I'm still thinking about [one in particular]. . . . I'll be adding this book to my shelf. I'm not ready to part with it." --Shannon Rhoades, NPR

"With characteristic exactness and compassion, Swift considers the cost of human conflict in all its forms. . . . Skilful, generous, and humane, these twelve tales suggest the complexity and heartbreak of being engaged on such an uncertain journey. . . . Swift's conceptual agility is on dazzling display." --Elizabeth Lowry, The Guardian

"Striking--a variegated lens on conflict and resolution through the decades. . . . Beautiful. . . . Gorgeously nuanced. . . . There can surely be no better contemporary writer to take on history's circularities than Graham Swift." --Catherine Taylor, The Observer

"A bravura new collection. . . . Swift's characters invariably captivate." --Malcolm Forbes, Washington Examiner

"Very powerful and poignant." --Leyla Sanai, The Spectator

"These stories, depth charges of love, anguish, resentment, each in their way relating to the effects of World War II, are so good. Swift at his best--and he's on top form here--has the humanity and wry humour of William Trevor." --Patrick Gale, author of A Place Called Winter

"Perceptive. . . . Finely tuned." --Publishers Weekly

"A brilliant, illuminating collection of short fiction, perhaps the author's best. . . . In Swift's touching, deeply humane stories, life leaves its mark in mysterious and sometimes-humorous ways. His gift for capturing in revealing detail the interior lives of people coping--or failing to cope--with disappointment gives each of these stories a rare depth." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Affecting. . . . In stark, immediate prose, deployed with utmost patience, Swift holds us close and points to powerful truths." --Brendan Driscoll, Booklist

"Swift makes history personal in the stunning Twelve Post-War Tales. . . . Every story is a keeper." --Robert Allen Papinchak, Shelf Awareness

"Exquisite, touching. . . . The stories are small masterworks that deal with personal pain and victory as only a writer as perceptive and talented as Graham Swift can." --Steven Whitton, Anniston Star

"A subtle, empathic collection written with tenderness and gentle humour." --Sydney Morning Herald

"A clever, subtle, and satisfying collection." --New Zealand Listener

"Deeply human. These are ordinary people living with what history, time, and love have made of them. . . . The collection spans decades yet feels immediate. . . . Swift [has an] extraordinary ear for voice. . . . Every sentence feels earned. His silences speak volumes. . . . With this collection, Swift reaffirms his place among the finest storytellers. He writes with such emotional precision and grace that no life, however quiet, feels small. This may be his finest work since Last Orders--a masterclass in restraint and the art of the short story." --Paul Perry, Irish Independent

"Miraculous. . . . Over more than forty years, Graham Swift has been writing without a misstep. . . . I'm blown away by the subtlety of these stories. . . . There is neither bombast nor sentimentality in Swift's writing. This tremendous stylist, who tirelessly explores the human soul, gets up close to the emotions of his characters instead. He embodies them magnificently, with remarkable restraint." --Alexandre Fillon, Les Echos (France)

"The 'tales' demonstrate Swift's masterful ability to link the local and the global, the historical and the personal." --Donald P. Kaczvinsky, World Literature Today

"Masterful. . . . Swift is not merely chronicling the aftermath--he is wrestling with the echo of memory. . . . In Twelve Post-War Tales, Swift peers into the spaces between what is said and unsaid, what is done and left undone, and finds the heartbeat of history." --Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat Gazette

About the Author

GRAHAM SWIFT was born in 1949 and is the author of eleven novels, three collections of short stories, and Making an Elephant, a book of essays, portraits, poetry, and reflections on his life in writing. With Waterland, he won The Guardian Fiction Award, and with Last Orders, the Booker Prize. Mothering Sunday became a worldwide bestseller and won the Hawthornden Prize. His work has appeared in more than thirty-five languages