David Mitchell's reputation as an experimental novelist may have scared off some potential readers in the past, but they are likely to be pleasantly surprised by his fourth novel, which focuses on 13 months in the life of 13-year-old Jason Taylor in a Worcestershire village.

It's 1982, and the teenager is afraid that his parents will break up, as he tries to cope with a stammer, which is threatening to make him the most unpopular boy in the school. As Jason tries to control his speech impediment, he takes secret delight in nature, poetry, and his own vivid imagination.

Mitchell sets the boy's struggles against the background of the Falklands War, the miners' strike, and the threat of nuclear annihilation, but it is not the convincing period detail which makes this book such a good read. The novelist has succeeded in creating a realistic family setting for Jason, and the dialogue or lack of it between his warring parents rings true on every page.

Mitchell starting writing this book years ago, and it could have been his first book, but he decided to launch his career with more experimental work instead.

This poignant, amusing and eerily beautiful book deserves to win the writer new readers because its linear form makes it much more accessible than his previous books.

The author insists that his own childhood was happier than Jason Taylor's, but this is clearly an intensely personal novel, and makes a refreshing change from his last three books.

Such a straightforward narrative is an experiment in itself for this novelist, who whether he likes the label or not, has written one of the most memorable and original British coming-of-age novels for years.

Mitchell's third novel, Cloud Atlas, which intertwined a number of different stories, was shortlisted for six literary awards and Black Swan Green also deserves nominations. It is Mitchell's most clearly told story so far, and the writer thinks it is his best to date.

BLACK SWAN GREEN is published by DAVID MITCHELL.

(£16.99, Sceptre)