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Gracie
, February 10, 2011
(view all comments by Gracie)
An intricate and engaging story, The Swan Thieves weaves together multiple narratives of the present and the past, of art and love, of madness and obsession. The novel is also more accessible than Elizabeth Kostova's debut, The Historian, though both are incredibly well researched and have a great deal of depth and detail.
It takes some time before the meaning of the book's title is revealed, and the mysterious journey that psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe takes to find out why his painter patient, Robert Oliver—who refuses to speak, let alone explain—attacked a painting in the National Gallery becomes a much greater search for the truth than anticipated. And Dr. Marlowe finds his own life changing more than he ever anticipated as a result of his search. He starts traveling the world to find out the method of Robert's madness and continues searching for himself and for the people he's discovered along the way. And while the ending is perhaps a bit too neat, there is satisfaction to be found in it all the same.
There is an echoing pathos to this book that might be better described with a painting than with words, and Kostova uses both to great effect. I'm eagerly looking forward to see what else she's going to write.
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