Rated of 5
by Elinor beautifully painterly
I loved this book from the beginning. The descriptions were so real and I felt the torment of the psychotic artist and the people who loved him. The parallel stories of the 19th and 20th centuries were well done.
Rated of 5
by Heather Disappointment
Kostiva's first novel held me captivated and spellbound and I was very excited when this second novel came out, however, I couldn't even finish it. The characters were flat, and the storyline just plodded along. I felt as if I was waiting for something, anything, to develop that would intrigue me. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt and continue reading waiting for the spellbinding effect of the first novel to take over. Finally, I threw the book away in disgust. I was highly disappointed by Kostiva's second novel and I do not recommend it at all.
Rated of 5
by Janet Elliott The Swan Theives
I loved this book from the first page; the clever way that it bridged the years, the visual descriptions of people, landscapes and colours. To me it left questions unanswered but this made it even more thought provoking. Even though I finished reading it two days ago I still feel the urge to go back to certain parts and re-read them. As with many other books I feel quite sad to be without all these lovely characters.
Rated of 5
by Marketa G. Unfortunately disappointing
I suppose after the success of The Historian, my expectations were quite high, as I am sure were those of other fans of Kostova's debut novel.
Unfortunately, I found the characters in The Swan Thieves rather uninteresting, and really didn't care about any of them. Her prose is dull, unfocused and tedious, and I found it difficult to get through each chapter.
The Swan Thieves just doesn't work.
Rated of 5
by Patricia Van Es The swan thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
It is beautifully and sensitively written, the story is not long when you put the whole of it together. One is meant to take your time and enjoy the painters for themselves individually, the scenes they are painting , the human interest and the atmosphere around them as well as the intrigue in the story. When you finish reading the whole book you are glad that you read to the end.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Stranger than fiction, blending tragedy and farce, How to Create the Perfect Wife is an engrossing tale of the radicalism, and deep contradictions, at the heart of the Enlightenment.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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British Parliament asks Amazon to clarify why it pays $9 million in income tax on $23 billion of UK sales.(May 20 2013) Amazon will be called back to give further evidence to members of the British Parliament "to clarify how its activities in the U.K. justify its low corporate...
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of 5
by Elinor 
of 5
by Heather 
