The Swan Thieves

By: Elizabeth Kostova

Narrated by: Treat Williams, Anne Heche, Erin Cottrell, Sarah Zimmerman, John Lee

Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

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 19th 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

painted with words

Reading the previous reviews, reveals more about the reviewer than the book. This book is one of those rare finds, that when I put it down, I found the texture of the world around me a richer variegated experience. I loved Kostova's first book and altho this one is not the adrenalin rush that the first one was, this was more a landscape painted with words, each brush stroke calculated to draw you deeper into the experience that is the Swan Thieves. I found myself in tears during the last 30 minutes.

rather dull but pleasant at times

I found it curious that the stories of Robert's women was told in such excruciating detail and Robert's "recovery" was handled rather ham-fisted. Why both the wife and, especially, the lover felt the need to tell the psychiatrist about mind numbing details of the beginning of their relationship with patient was and still is beyond my ability to understand and appreciate. The relationship between the psychiatrist and the patient's ex-lover was not developed well in the least. None of the characters elicited warmth, empathy or sympathy.

But, I am an older reader who had more patience with this rather poorly portioned and paced book, more so when the history of the painting was brought into the story.

Consuming!

This book held me captive from the first five minutes until the end. This is on of the best works of prose I have ever read. I stayed up to listen and was so pulled in by the writer's use of language to create the sense of longing of each of the characters. The last three books I've listened to cannot even compare to how well written this story is!

I found a new favorite author!

Wow - what amazing plot development, characterization, and depth! I thoroughly
enjoyed The Historian. That made me want to find more of Ms. Kostova's work. Brava! Your brilliant writing has a new fan and follower! I will definitely be recommending her books to others as The Historian was recommended to me. The audio version was very well read, giving an additional level of appreciation!

Great Narration

I loved the narration of this book. I can see how some people would find it dull but I was interested in all three stories going on within this books. It's a slow moving work but that is because you get wrapped up in so many facets of peoples lives.

This was ... strange

I did not like it, I liked it, not like, like, not like......... Nothing mindblowing, good twists and surprises but had to work hard at getting to the end.

Full of obsession

That’s the stand out theme to me for this book; obsession. At different moments, it feels like all of the characters are unhealthily obsessed with someone or something. So much so that the psychiatrist, in first an effort to treat a renowned painter and later mostly a selfish desire to discover what made him break down to the point he became mute, lunges ahead through the pages all the while breaking probably every ethical and moral guideline there is to someone in his profession. He learns about the painter’s life following breadcrumbs to the people most important to him and so forth until he eventually reaches the conclusion of the mystery.

I did like that the different major voices and perspectives throughout the book were narrated by a different cast of actors, especially since I found the primary narrator to be a bit flat at times. The change in perspective helps break up the rather uneventful beats of the story.

Painting is another major obsession of the book. You’ll hear about it so much it exhausts you. This was to be expected because it is a prevalent theme in the author’s first book, The Historian, too. Although, that one is about landscapes and libraries instead of painting.

The overall story was fairly interesting but ultimately longer than was necessary to tell the tale properly. I felt there was a lot of meandering and unimportance that could be cut to make the lengthy book a bit more spry and less tiresome to finish. I bought this audiobook shortly after it came out but gave up on it for reasons I can’t remember. I’m glad I circled back around eventually, but ultimately this isn’t a must read unless the subject matter especially speaks to you.

Loved It

What made the experience of listening to The Swan Thieves the most enjoyable?

The story was written so well. The characters came alive to me. I enjoed the detail of everything and everyone.

Made me want to take a painting class

The story:
I really enjoy the way Elizabeth Kostova writes. The way she describes the observations of the characters and their motivations is really easy for me to relate to. We probably process our environments in a similar way.

After hearing about all of the artists and their experiences and histories, I actually considered taking an art course to learn more about techniques and styles. I always enjoy a book that inspires my curiosity and has me researching on the internet.

The performance:
I found a couple of the narrators harder to pay attention to that the others, but that was because of my own preference in narration styles. The main male narrator reminded me of going to a book reading by an author...it was just a reading and not a performance (I haven't yet found an author that was also a voice actor). One of the women had an abrasive, hard enunciation that sounded like her voice was on the verge of crossing over into "quavering with emotion." Neither was horrible, but I definitely preferred listening to the other three narrators.

Well-written, but a bit boring

I found this book to be incredibly well-written. I loved the descriptions especially as they were written as if by a painter. However, there was not much which actually happened in the book. I found myself quite expectant halfway through and still not much happened. Still, it was relaxing to listen to, and the readers were very good.