War rages but sometimes the enemy is closer than you think.Aged 14, Mhairi is forced into adulthood. Evicted from her family home in rural Scotland, separated from her parents, she must find her own way in life. As she fights for survival in a city of strangers, she finds companionship in the most unlikely of places. And she finds love.But Mhairi has made an enemy and he is powerful. Women like her have no place in his world.The unthinkable happens and she loses everything again, including her freedom.She had the best of friends and the greatest love. Now she has nothing. Will she have the strength to carry out the fight of her life?

Perfect for fans of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, and Sal by Mik Kitson, with its celebration of the natural world, its misunderstood central characters living on the outside of society's norms, their survival in the wilderness, and the ultimate fight for justice.What people are saying ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is a truly lovely book, full of heart. It's a gripping and moving plot about two young people separately affected by devastating life-changes which uproot them and force them to learn self-reliance. All this against a backdrop of the most beautiful, lyrical description of the natural world of woodlands and streams, and good people. All of this brings them together and helps to heal them.Reading Before the Swallows Come Back feels like forest bathing on a stiflingly hot day, or being borne up in the gloss and buoyancy of a river running clean and...