The Swan Thieves is a novel supposedly modelled on Conrad's Lord Jim, following psychiatrist Andrew Marlow as he attempts to cure his patient Robert Oliver, a painter obsessed with one unknown woman, painting her over and over again with disturbing realism.I read The Swan Thieves because I had alrea...
Andrew Marlow, by profession a psychiatrist who specializes in mental disorders in creative people, gets a new patient - acclaimed artist Robert Oliver, who has been arrested for attempting to slash a painting in the National Gallery. Other than a few cursory sentences on admission, Robert chooses ...
Loved The Historian. Didn't love The Swan Thieves. Kostova is an intelligent writer, but this book lives and dies on characterization and first person narrative, and I didn't feel like the various narrators' voices were distinct enough. They all sounded like Kostova.In addition, the level of deta...
I'm torn on this book. I enjoyed reading it - it moved along quickly, had an interesting plot. Things kept bothering me, though - for one thing, I didn't think much of the psychiatrist - and since he was in some ways the main character, there was no escaping this. Had he no concept at all of ethic...
Even slower than her first book, but very good... else I wouldn't be 500 pages in, not knowing EXACTLY what's going on, but still eagerly reading. She's a great author, although I'm pretty sure I liked the Historian more.
Opening: "Outside the village there is a fire ring, blackening the thawing snow. Next to the fire ring is a basket that has sat there for months and is beginning to weather to the color of ash."Back in 2009, I read The Historian, Kostova's first novel. I found it generally interesting, a fast read d...
3.5 starsI struggled to rate this book. On one hand, it sucked me in and had me hooked from start to finish - I wanted to know how this was going to end.On the other hand, there were so many things about it that completetly annoyed me. I didn't like the characters, and the writing was clumsy. Diffic...
The story of a disturbed painter and his psychiatrist who, while trying to figure out his silent patient, becomes obsessed with his patient's life. An interesting read, with many references to art and artists. I wasn't as enthralled as I was when reading The Historian, but the story did keep my in...
This is the second book by the author of THE HISTORIAN. If you are looking for another suspenseful page turner with a supernatural element then you might be a little disappointed by this effort. This book moves along at a more languid pace, told through narratives by the three principal characters...
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