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The Swan Thieves

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The Swan Thieves

By: Elizabeth Kostova
Narrated by: Treat Williams, Anne Heche
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About this listen

Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life--solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves.

This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient.

In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, The Swan Thieves is a story of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope.

©2010 Elizabeth Kostova (P)2010 Hachette Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant
A compelling novel from different points of view gradually revealing a mystery. Convincingly performed. Recommended

Compelling, convincing, recommended

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A warning to the fans of the Historian - this is a very different book, written in a different style. I still listened with interest, as it offers a glimpse into an artist's world and perhaps reality. The story is about the obsession of an artist and it is rich in characters, but something about the way the characters interact and tell their stories, it is not realistic, and it fails to grasp you, or touch you emotionally, as it sounds fake. Still, there is romance in the story and a little bit of true art history, I also liked that the story is read as a play, with a couple of narrators and different accents. Elizabeth Kostova for her love of Bulgaria did not fail to mention this faraway exotic country.

Not enough mystery in there, but a different story

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The style is great, story is twisted and it gives a good insight to psychology and visual arts. It made me more interested in paintings. Narrators are great. There isn't too much action, it is more of a reflective or self-reflective book.

Gives an interesting insight to visual arts

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Superb! This book puts me in mind of the great late-Victorian/Edwardian novelists - Conrad, Henry James, Arnold Bennett; think “Victory”, “Portrait of a Lady “, “The Old Wives Tale “. The plot, such as it is, is incidental; the pleasure is in the characterisation. It is a mystery of sorts but don’t let that put you off! Central to the book is art, specifically Impressionism, and I felt that Kostova had constructed the book in the way that an Impressionist painter might construct a painting, with deft strokes combining to create an image best appreciated as a whole, at a distance. All four narrators are excellent. I have read the book twice but can honestly say that it is improved in performance.

They don’t write them like this anymore

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Found this quite dull, slow story full of flowery irrelevant descriptions to pad the story out. Shame as I quite liked The Historian. Disappointing.

Yawn

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What would have made The Swan Thieves better?

I like many others I guess bought this on the strength of enjoying her The Historian. Unfortunately the story isn't as engaging and I didn't care for the characters or the plot ( there isn't much of one unfortunately). It's a shame the author was unable to produce as good a story as the Historian which was pretty creepy at times. This though was frankly, boring.

What was most disappointing about Elizabeth Kostova’s story?

The English was poor and grating at times with unnecessary detail and long lists of information that again didn't add anything to it. The lack of an interesting storyline is perhaps the biggest disappointment.

What does Treat Williams and Anne Heche bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Overall I gave two stars because the performance was so much better than the story! But this isn't good enough reason to buy the book, it just made it more bearable.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Swan Thieves?

I don't want to be too negative here..........like I've said I don't rate the whole book which is a shame, so much hard work obviously went into it.

Any additional comments?

If this was even offered as a BOGO audible deal I wouldn't even bother. Too many much better books to read......

I'd read other negative reviews before reading and tried to keep an open mind. Unfortunately though this is another " I wouldn't bother" review.

There are much better books to read than this.....

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I bought this as I had really enjoyed Kostova's 'The Historian' and the subject of art is something I am interested in.
Unfortunately I found The Swan Thieves tedious, I had no sympathy towards any of the characters.
The whole story seemed to be finding out who the mysterious subject of Robert Oliver's paintings was, to me this was obvious from early on yet the main character a psychiatrist Andrew Marlow, who had all the info the reader had, failed to work it out and just spent all his time talking to people close to Oliver hoping to find the answer. These included Oliver's ex wife Kate and his girlfriend Mary, who although had gone out of her way to meet Marlow and talk to him then only felt able to write episodic letters to him, which unfolded her whole life history to him including a description of using a tampon (!). To be fair the story wasn't helped by the narrating, the only voice I enjoyed listening too was 'Mary', and 'Beatrice' just sounded like someone from 'Ello 'Ello. There were times when the timeline/voice changed and I found myself physically groaning. Maybe if I had read rather than listened to the book I would have enjoyed it more, but I doubt it. In fact I am over half way through and have decided to give up, something I haven't as yet done on an audio book, but have decided life is too short !

***May contain Spoilers ! ***

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I, too, enjoyed Kostova's early work but found this novel hard going. I persevered to the end hoping it would get better, but it never did. Treat Williams gave an exceptionally poor narration which made a dull story even harder to listen to. Don't waste your time/money.

Not as good as The Historian

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