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''Anna and the Swallow Man'' is one of those all ages and no age stories. It's intensely literary, told by a genuine wordsmith. It's also very subtle, approaching everything tangentially. Horrors are often shown through hints, rather than graphic descriptions. Flavours of magic realism and folklore tropes run through the narrative. You'll find it on the YA shelves in the bookshop but it isn't a YA novel in the commercial sense. Brave middle -grade readers of open and strong sensibilities could fall in love with ''Anna and the Swallow Man'' but it speaks to the grown-ups, too. These are my favourite sorts of stories - the ones for everyone, the ones that speak to child and teenager and adult alike with each taking something different but equally appropriate and meaningful from the reading.

The obvious suggestions for ''more like this'' are [[The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne]] and [[The Book Thief by Markus Zusak]]. But you might also want to look at the dangerous [[The Road of Bones by Anne Fine]] or the magical [[The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M Valente]] as well. We can also recommend [[When The Guns Fall Silent by James Riordan]].