Fiona Curnow

A young boy and girl fall in love after meeting at a lake in the Scottish wilderness. He is a tinker. In Scotland tinkers are also known as Scottish travelers and are apparently a Gypsy or Romani group. They border on being social outcasts. This meaning of th name tinker is new to me, but important to the story. As the name Scottish travelers suggests they travel from place to place and live off of jobs and their wits. The boy and girl become great friends.
Then the girls father is murder during a robbery of their home. She OSs sent to live with her mother. Her mother IS separated from her father and living with another man. At first the girl retreats into catatonia. Then the gift of a cat restores her interest in life. She decides to try and return home to find her boyfriend.
Meanwhile the boys family outs killed on a tragedy. He continues their wandering ways. He ends up settling back where the girl had lived. He is taken under the wing of a local landowner. I’m an act of revenge a neighbor accuses him of muttering the girls father.
The climax offs about how this all works out.… (meer)

Before the Swallows Come Back is the story of Tommy and Charlotte, two young people who, for very different reasons, are quite isolated. Tommy is a Tinker and his family roam according to the seasons. One day he meets Charlotte, who cares alone for her sick father, and there's an immediate connection between them. Although each way of life keeps them apart, it's when tragedy occurs for both of them that they're really pulled apart and the question is whether they can ever be reunited after all they have gone through.

There's a simplistic quality to the writing style that fits well with the naivety of the main characters, particularly Tommy whose life has been lived out in nature, learning to listen to the sounds around him and to be at one with the earth and the water. Sometimes I felt a young reader would appreciate reading this book and might empathise with Tommy and Charlotte, but there are some really shocking events that changed my mind on that score.

It's quite a sad story for these two young people who go through such a lot but finding each other keeps them going. They also have others looking out for them, people who become friends to them. Loyal animal friends feature strongly too, tying in with Tommy and Charlotte's love of the natural world. The author writes expressive descriptions of all that they encounter, the changing of the seasons in Scotland, and the lives of those who don't necessarily fit in and who need to find their own place in the world. A thoughtful, moving and hopeful story.… (meer)