Reviews

JOURNEY ON THE JAMES: Three Weeks through the Heart of Virginia

“Perfectly enchanting. . . .Told with wit, intelligence, and a journalist’s sense of integrity, this book is a treasure for anyone who loves the Old Dominion."
                                                                                                --Virginia Quarterly Review  

“This is no if-it’s-Tuesday-it-must-be-Balcony-Falls travelogue, but a lively and colorful recap of a journey savored hour by hour. . . .Swift’s superb writing will engage and hold the reader from page one to the end.” 
                                                                                                 --Richmond Times-Dispatch

“By turns travel narrative, history book, and comic adventure, Journey on the James breathes life into the affairs of one of our most beautiful and significant rivers.”
                                                                                                                         --Style Weekly  

“Like taking a guided tour of both the past and the present of the James River. It reminded me that the things we see every day often have very interesting stories to tell.”
                                                                                                         --Potomac Appalachian 

“Swift pays close attention to the river, not just because he has to navigate it but because it speaks to him.”
                                                                                                                  --Washington Post  

“Swift threads into his trip historical anecdotes of the people and events that are so much a part of the story of the James River. These are the pearls that I found the most delightful. Some I knew, most I didn’t. And none were told to me before with such a captivating accounting.”
                                                                                           --Lexington, Va., News-Gazette

 “One of the most engrossing nature/travel/adventure /history chronicles I’ve read in a long while. All the more fascinating is the fact that Swift is traversing a part of the earth I’ve covered for years, and opening my eyes to things I’ve overlooked along the way.”
                                                                                                                    --Roanoke Times

WHERE THEY LAY: Searching for America's Lost Soldiers

“From the very first sentence, you know you’re in the hands of a pro.”                                                                                                                --South China Post

“The first full-scale account of the work of the Central Identification Laboratory. . . .Exhibits thorough research, intelligent assimilation of personal experience. . .and what might be called a commitment to commitment as represented by the whole quest for the American MIA that is now entering its third generation.”    
                                                                                                             --Publishers Weekly

“A poignant tale of one war and four lost lives. And the story of all who never came back.”
                                                           --James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers

“A book about lost soldiers, bones, memory, ‘science afoot,’ and of course the war that took place in the high weeds of Vietnam. . . . told so beautifully, so hauntingly, and so unforgettably.”
                                                                                      --Wil Haygood, Washington Post
 
“Powerful . . . Swift brings back at once, full blown and unforgettably, the questers and the quarry. Mission accomplished.”
                                                                                                            --The Virginian-Pilot

“A hands-on, thought-provoking book. . . .Vivid.”  
                                                                                                --Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Successfully balances anthropology and forensic science with the haunted tale of a war that consumed more than its share of young soldiers. . . .A substantial and enjoyable military history that raises disturbing questions about the nature of collective remembrance and what truly endures when warfare ceases.”                                                                                                                   -- Chicago Reader

“A poetic and pulsating elegy. . . .Were bone fragments and deadly vipers ever described so beautifully?”
                                                                                                                --East Bay Express

 “An intense micro history. . .Compelling, serious, morally exigent, and
well told.”   
                                                --Finalist citation for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award    

THE TANGIERMAN'S LAMENT and Other Tales of Virginia

“Every week the New York Times Magazine pays pots of money for articles which are neither as bold nor as bracing nor as deeply decent nor as intelligently constructed as Mr. Swift’s. . . .He proves that ordinary people can break your heart. Like the best regional writing, its focus increases its power, humanity, and scope.”                              
                                                         --Donald McCaig, author of Rhett Butler’s People

   “One of the things that makes the book compelling is his sure grasp of history, both natural and cultural, and his knack for giving readers an exhilarating sense of it. . . .The narratives in this book are laced with. . .comments that elicit a silent wow in the reader’s mind.” 
                                                                                                               --Port Folio Weekly
 
 “A fascinating cultural document that yearns to be savored unhurriedly, in Sunday afternoon meditations one essay at a time, not devoured like the rich meal it ultimately turns out to be.”       
                                                                                                             --The Virginian-Pilot