The Boy and the Swan

A lonely child living in an isolated cottage with his deaf grandmother becomes fascinated by the stories of swans but finds that the romantic fantasy of their death is not matched by the death of the pair of swans he witnesses. They have left a nest of eggs and he determines to hatch one out. The cygnet becomes his pride and joy, he identifies with it in his parentless state and it becomes a single, central joy to his life. His grandmother then has a stroke and dies, so he is taken to a home. When able to return to the swan in the hope of bringing it back, he has to face the fact that it has a new life to lead, as he does too when his mother is found, happy to find the boy she thought was lost to her. It's a spare story, thoughtfully and intelligently written.