Synopses & Reviews
A dazzlingly imagined novel that embraces two centuries, two young women, a long-lost journal, and the mystery of the legendary Casanova's last great love.
It's 1797, and an aging Casanova has returned to Venice in disguise to elude the authorities. There he meets Asked For Adams, the niece of American president John Adams, who is accompanying her father on a trade mission, just as Napoleon's army invades, throwing the city into chaos. Casanova convinces Asked For to abandon her future as the wife of a Yankee farmer and set out with him on a dangerous adventure through post-Byzantine Greece to Istanbul, which she records in intimate detail in her travel journal-until the account ends suddenly.
Two hundred years later this journal comes into the possession of Luce Adams, Asked For's twenty-first-century descendant, an awkward and shy young archivist grieving her mother's death. En route to her mother's memorial service in Crete, accompanied by her mother's lover, and entrusted with delivering precious letters by Casanova to the Venetian library, she falls under the spell of the two adventurers and becomes determined to find out what happened to them.
As their stories interweave, both young women are touched by the spirit of Casanova, a man whose appetite for life and generous spirit ignites possibility everywhere he goes. By the end, Luce uncovers the fate not only of Asked For but of her own mother, and she finds herself set free by what she learns about travel, self-invention, loss, acceptance, and, of course, love.
Review
"Swan uses dual narratives as an effective page-turning device...Her prose is often poetic, the characters charming."
Library Journal
Review
"Breathtaking, a tour de force that detonates echoes of the past within the present...Utterly seductive."
Globe and Mail
Review
"Alluring novel...Asked For, in particular, has a bright, engaging voice."
Publishers Weekly
Review
"Alluring novel.Asked For, in particular, has a bright, engaging voice."(Publishers Weekly)
Review
"In its inventive range, its playful engagement and tantalizing mystery, What Casanova Told Me is breathtaking, a tour de force that detonates echoes of the past within the present...Utterly seductive." Globe and Mail
Review
"Susan Swan has given us a great romantic novel...Graceful and literate."
Alberto Manguel
Review
"An exotic romance, a rollicking adventure, a work of prose that could almost be poetry...This magnificently sad and funny and exciting trip is, indeed, one you'd be very sad you missed." Calgary Herald
Review
"There is something both titillating and fantastical about this type of historical fiction, and Swan is adept at spinning facts into vividly imagined scenes and characters." Quill - & - Quire
Review
"Alluring...Asked For, in particular, has a bright, engaging voice."--
Publishers Weekly "Susan Swan has given us a great romantic novel. What Casanova Told Me is a graceful and literate meditation on the uneasy relationship between the New World and the Old, on the gossip of history and on the nature of love."--Alberto Manguel
"In its inventive range, its playful engagement and tantalizing mystery, What Casanova Told Me is breathtaking, a tour de force...Utterly seductive."--Globe and Mail
Synopsis
The sixth daring novel from Canada's pre-eminent explorer of the sexual psyche is a dazzlingly imagined story that encompasses transformation, love, archaeology and freedom.
It's 1797, and an aging, lovesick Jacob Casanova enters Venice in disguise on a public barge. There he persuades Asked For Adams, the young Puritan cousin of American President John Adams, to set out with him on a romantic odyssey through post-Byzantine Athens and Istanbul, which she lovingly records in her travel journal.
Framing their adventure is the story of beautiful Luce Adams, Asked For's twenty-first-century descendant and inheritor of her journal, who is on her way to her mother's memorial service with her mother's lover, Lee Pronski. She arrives in Venice full of expectations just as Casanova and Asked For did two hundred years earlier.
Using Asked For's journal as a guide, Luce travels through Venice, Greece and Turkey, and begins to see how she can seize experience and come to terms with her mother's love for her and for Lee. As the journeys of the two women come together, Luce finds her own way of moving through the world, and Asked For discovers how vulnerable the great Casanova was -- a man whose brilliance and generous mind make him a presence that still ignites possibilities.
Excerpt from "What Casanova Told Me
"Luce examined the letters first, untying the ribbon with her long skilful fingers. The staff at the Sansovinian would be pleased: not a drop of twenty-first-century moisture marred the paper bearing the watermark of the famous Italian printer Fabriano. The letters were written in French and Italian in a dramatic, eighteenth-century style. . . .
"From the Hardcoveredition.
Synopsis
"Rich in interesting digressions into subjects as diverse as Minoan goddess worship and Western Orientalist stereotypes. Swan...has much to say about the emotional risks required to live a fulfilled life."--Washington Post
A dazzlingly imagined novel that embraces two centuries, two young women, a long-lost journal, and the mystery behind the legendary Casanova's last great love.
Susan Swan's critically acclaimed fiction has been published in 20 countries. Her last novel, The Wives of Bath, was a finalist for the Guardian Award and Trillium Award and made into the feature film Lost and Delirious. Her other books include The Biggest Modern Woman of the World, Stupid Boys Are Good to Relax With, and The Last of the Golden Girls.
About the Author
Susan Swan's highly acclaimed fiction has been published in twenty countries. Her last novel,
The Wives of Bath, was made into the feature film
Lost and Delirious. Her other books include
The Biggest Modern Woman of the World and
The Last of the Golden Girls. She lives in Toronto.