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Also by Trent Dalton:

Gravity Let Me Go, October 2026
Trade Paperback / e-Book
Lola in the Mirror, September 2024
Paperback / e-Book
Love Stories, April 2023
Hardcover / e-Book (reprint)
Love Stories, January 2023
Hardcover / e-Book
Love Stories, November 2021
Hardcover / e-Book
All Our Shimmering Skies, July 2021
Paperback / e-Book
Boy Swallows Universe, April 2019
Hardcover / e-Book

BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE
By: Trent Dalton

Harper
April 2019
On Sale: April 2, 2019
464 pages
ISBN: 0062898108
EAN: 9780062898104
Kindle: B07KPF1MK7
Hardcover / e-Book
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Coming of Age

An utterly wonderful debut novel of love, crime, magic, fate and a boy’s coming of age, set in 1980s Australia and infused with the originality, charm, pathos, and heart of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The mind can take you anywhere you want to go

Eli Bell’s life is complicated. His father is lost, his mother is in jail, and his stepdad is a heroin dealer. The most steadfast adult in Eli’s life is Slim—a notorious felon and national record-holder for successful prison escapes—who watches over Eli and August, his silent genius of an older brother.

Exiled far from the rest of the world in Darra, a seedy suburb populated by Polish and Vietnamese refugees, this twelve-year-old boy with an old soul and an adult mind is just trying to follow his heart, learn what it takes to be a good man, and train for a glamorous career in journalism. Life, however, insists on throwing obstacles in Eli’s path—most notably Tytus Broz, Brisbane’s legendary drug dealer.

But the real trouble lies ahead. Eli is about to fall in love, face off against truly bad guys, and fight to save his mother from a certain doom—all before starting high school.

A story of brotherhood, true love, family, and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe is the tale of an adolescent boy on the cusp of discovering the man he will be. Powerful and kinetic, Trent Dalton’s debut is sure to be one of the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novels you will experience.