Georgia Author of the Year Finalist, 2018
Swann does a wonderful job depicting these lost boys, the puzzling kinetics of friendship, competition and status . . . Blackburne feels like an unmanned ship where anything could happen.
—MARISHA PESSL, The New York Times Book Review
How long must we pay for the crimes of our youth? That is just one question that Christopher Swann explores in this compulsively readable debut, a literary thriller set in the elite—and sometimes dark—environs of Blackburne, a prep school in Virginia. When Matthias Glass’s best friend Fritz vanishes without a trace in the middle of an argument during their senior year, Matthias tries to move on with his life, only to realize that until he discovers what happened to his missing friend, he will be stuck in the past—guilty, responsible, alone.
Almost ten years after Fritz’s disappearance, Matthias gets his chance. Offered a job teaching English at Blackburne, he gets swiftly drawn into the mystery. In the shadowy woods of his alma mater, he stumbles into a web of surveillance, dangerous lies, and buried secrets—and discovers the troubled underbelly of a school where the future had once always seemed bright.
A sharp tale full of false leads and surprise turns, Shadow of the Lions is also wise and moving. Christopher Swann has given us a gripping debut about friendship, redemption, and what it means to lay the past to rest.
Read an Excerpt from Shadow of the Lions
“A House Split in Half” essay – from The Algonquin Reader Fall 2017
Southern Book Prize Nominee 2018: Literary Fiction (Long List)
Townsend Prize Finalist 2018
Georgia Author of the Year Nominee 2018: First Novel
Southern Living Best Southern Books of 2017
Publishers Weekly Best Summer Books 2017
Deep South Summer Reading List 2017
Starred review in Library Journal
SIBA Okra Pick Summer 2017
Crook’s Corner Book Prize Longlist 2018
YALSA Alex Award 2018 Nominee
Alabama Booksmith Signed First Editions Club Selection (August 2017)
Malaprop’s First Edition Book Club (August 2017)
More praise for Shadow of the Lions
