The Swan Thieves

I have listened to a great many audiobooks by various authors, including this one. While "The Historian" was interresting, this book was not at all. The main character is mundanely obsesessed with a boring artist, who has an even more boring obsession with an historical figure who's significance is scant. The author uses too many descriptives to detail minute by minute what the reader surmises in the first few encounters with each character. There is no exciting revelation at the end to make up for her wordy drudgery. It's one of the few books that I found a complete waste and I'm sorry to have purchased it. I try to find some redeeming aspect in every book, but this one was almost impossible to finish listening to. Listener beware.

Good grief. Many, many words about not much. I stuck with this until I thought my ears were going to bleed. I may try it again later but I don't know if it was the reader or the story that turned into a gentle roar in my head. Either way, I give.

I had high hopes for this book but it was an all around dud for me. The story began in an interesting way but soon became repetitive and tedious. The female characters point of view was told in way too much detail, and in the end as I suspected there was no earthly reason to have listened to these girls drone on and on for hours about the minutia of their lives with the painter.
I also figured out the "surprise" ending about 8 hrs in. Not very subtle plotting.
The narrators of this book did not help alleviate the boredom at all, I do like the sound of Treat Williams voice but this was more of a read aloud effort rather than a performance.
Very disappointing and not in my opinion, credit worthy.

I really enjoyed "The Historian", so I was looking forward to this, but it was perhaps the most boring thing I've ever listened to. She goes into ridiculous levels of detail about things that have no bearing on the story. I started to give up after the first of three parts, but didn't. I should have. Also, this is the first book I've listened to narrated by Treat Williams. I guess he's an OK actor, but I don't think he's much of an audiobook narrator.

It's not awful, but I was disappointed, expecting something as great as "The Historian." I kept waiting for something major to happen and I felt like the story just petered out. I thought the narration was AWFUL- particularly that by Treat Williams. I also found the "French" accents to be overdone and distracting. The whole thing was just ok.

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.

Dr. Andrew Marlowe receives a patient recommendation from a friend of his on a painter named Robert Oliver. Oliver was recently arrested for trying to stab a painting entitled The Swan Thieves. Oliver speaks to Marlowe only once, upon his first admittance to the psych hospital where he will be treated and refuses to speak again. Marlowe goes above and beyond, talking to Oliver's ex-wife, ex-lover, ex-colleagues and ex-acquaintances to try to get to the root of his problems. In the meantime, Oliver stays in his room at the hospital, being the perfect patient, painting the same woman over and over and over again. Who is this woman? Why does she have such a profound affect on Robert? And is she what drove him to the attack on the painting? Marlowe goes off in search of all of these answers to help his troubled patient, and the answers are not at all what he expected.

I listened to the audio version of this. I found the story a little hard to follow. The narrators of the letters from Paris in the late 1800's reminded me so much of Antonio Banderas' voice I would giggle when they came on. The reading was very well done; Treat Williams as the lead Andrew Marlowe. However the narration and performance of one of the characters was so poignant, so strong, and so heartbreaking, that it garnered this review another star. Anne Heche as the voice of Kate Oliver, Robert's ex-wife. Her appearance is fairly brief, but her reading was the icing on the cake for me. I was almost in tears by the end of her section. I think if I would have read the book instead of listening to it I would not have finished it.

It was a slow start and the narrator's voice takes a little getting used to but once you are caught up in the history and romance of it all it is worth the time. Definitely for grown-ups only. If you love sci-fi/action then this is not for you. It did however make me want to sketch again.

Don't get me wrong, the audible representation of the book is all first class. Excellent reading and quality (if anything I'd like a higher bitrate but thats a general issue).
I had high expectations here as I liked the historian, it was a very nice story with a nice flow to it that I like. This one started out fine, nice scenery and interesting events at the start. From there nothing happened for about 26 chapters. I haven't even gotten to the end yet, its all repetition and plain booring. So, be prepared for 26 chapters describing a painter trying too hard to depict the same lady over and over. I'm sorry but too me this was a complete disaster.

Do not expect any similarity to Kostova's first novel. This one is intriguing initially, with the time shifts between current day, and late 19th Century France. The narrators do a good job of presenting the nuances of very finely "drawn" characters. However, as with too many notes in music, too many words, too many flashbacks, too many unresolved questions...all create a feeling of disappointment and a gradual wearing down of interest, to the point that I just finally gave up two thirds of the way through. Maybe I'll go back to it in a few months and finish, because I do love Elizabeth's writing style.