Note: this review contains spoilers after the first paragraph.

William Maxwell’s “They Came Like Swallows” was originally published in 1937. It was published in the UK for the first time in 2002. The novel chronicles the story of an American family at the end of the First World War and during the influenza epidemic in 1918.

Bunny is eight years old and lives with his parents and older brother Robert in a Midwestern town. Bunny, a playful, creative and sensitive boy, idolises his mother Elizabeth but is scared of his brother and father. Elizabeth is pregnant. The influenza epidemic slowly tears their lives apart and tragedy ensues.

This novel is definitely worth reading in the context of literature about epidemics. It feels particularly relevant during the current period of the Covid19 crisis. In the first part of the novel we see the world through Bunny’s eyes as he interacts with his family and the people around him. I found the descriptions of Bunny’s relationship with his mother very touching, especially the poignant and prescient paragraph when Bunny imagines “what it would be like if she were not there. If his mother were not there to protect him from whatever was unpleasant—from the weather and from Robert and from his father—what would he do? Whatever would become of him in a world where there was neither warmth nor comfort nor love?”.

As the novel progresses we also find out more about Robert, his infatuation with his aunt, and how he deals with his disability. We also get glimpses of the father’s emotional world. Although the novel is well-written, I didn’t find the last two sections particularly interesting or captivating, especially when compared to the brilliant first section. I thought the novel doesn’t go far enough in exploring how the family learns to deal with the aftermath of the influenza epidemic and how it handles its collective grief. Nonetheless, I would still recommend this short novel to anyone who is interested in literature about epidemics.

With thanks to Vintage and Netgalley for a digital copy of the novel.

The way this was spilt into three parts with the story focusing on each of the men in the Morison family. Each had their own distinctive voice and it was always clear who was telling the story. This book was interesting to read at this current time and the grief, trauma, and epidemics. The wiring was beautiful and this made it an easy and exciting read. This is a classic that I had never heard of before but this is one writer I would read again,

This is a quiet, tender story about an ordinary woman, wife, mother, and the gap that her absence leaves in the family. Set in November 1918, it's no surprise when Spanish Flu comes to town... but, then, this isn't a plot-driven novel. The structure is like a triptych: we see events from the PoV of 8-year old Bunny (self-consciously modelled on Proust's Marcel in the first book?), then his older brother and, finally, their father. For me, Bunny's section was wonderful, the later two not quite as good.

Maxwell's writing is elegant and sensitive, but the way he captures Bunny and the mother through Bunny's eyes isn't duplicated as strongly in the later sections. Still, a lovely portrait of an ordinary family and an ordinary tragedy, one duplicated in its millions during the 1918 epidemic.