The Swan Thieves

This was a beautifully written novel that I did not fully understand until the very end - all 560 or so pages of it. Elizabeth Kostova writes deep, rich, intriguing characters, as anyone who has read The Historian knows. But she also writes with a great deal of mystery - I honestly had no idea that things would turn out as they did.

Robert is a troubled artist, seemingly obsessed with a woman long dead. Marlow is the doctor at the sanitarium who will seemingly do almost anything to help him. I didn't particularly like Robert, although he is certainly an intriguing character. He's just almost too... everything - self-absorbed, moody, unpredictable, and often dishonest. Marlow on the other hand is more my style - smart, quietly humorous, solicitous. Not that the novel is entirely about these two men, but it's impossible not to compare them.

But at the heart of the novel is the story of Beatrice de Clerval, one of the greatest woman Impressionist painters, who mysteriously stopped painting at the tender age of 29. What is the connection between Robert and Beatrice, and why is he obsessed with her? I had all sorts of ideas about, but came nowhere near figuring out the truth. And that is Kostova's gift.

I highly recommend this book, whether you liked The Historian or not. It's just a fabulous (if hard to carry) story.

Kostova's The Swan Thieves A Novel (The Swan Thieves: A Novel by Elizabeth Kostova)