Elizabeth Kostova was first published in 2005
with her best-selling historical vampire thriller, The Historian. Today,
there are more than 1.5 million copies in print and a Sony film adaptation is
in the works. Much like that novel, Kostova sets up The Swan of Thieves.
Here, Kostova creates a central, academic hero that
becomes engrossed within a mystery. Each chapter ranges in time from past to
present, encompassing the lives of painters Beatrice de Clerval and her uncle
Olivier Vignot, whose lives are beautifully described and played out through
their art and letters.
Juxtaposing the past with the present, Kostova creates her
academic hero in Andrew Marlow, a trained psychiatrist who is bent on asking
the tough, prying questions and unraveling the mystery that is key to the plot
of the novel. The mystery being that one of Marlow's patients, renowned painter
Robert Oliver, tried to slash a painting in the National Gallery. Marlow
becomes increasingly obsessed with Oliver and his reasons for attempting to do
what he did, when he uncovers Oliver's obsession with a stolen batch of letters
written in French that he continually reads and obsesses over himself.
Fans of Kostova have waited with great anticipation for
her next novel. Fans of The Historian will not be disappointed by The
Swan Thieves, in fact, it is rather easy to see much of Kostova's budding
writing style continue on into her latest novel.
The intrigue and ability to build a deep and entangled
plot is clearly evident in Kostova's second novel. Accompanied with the lush
world of Impressionism and 19th century life, Kostova delivers with The Swan
Thieves: A Novel. Kostova has a great gift for writing. It will be a long wait
to see what her third novel will bring to her already impressive quality of
work.
Kostova was born New London, Connecticut and raised in
Knoxville, Tennessee where she graduated from the Webb School of Knoxville. She
went on to complete her undergraduate degree from Yale University and a Master
of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan.
According to a press release, in May 2007, the Elizabeth
Kostova Foundation was created to help support Bulgarian creative writing, the
translation of contemporary Bulgarian literature into English, and friendship
between Bulgarian authors and American and British authors.
The Swan Thieves: A Novel by
Elizabeth Kostova was published by Little, Brown and Company on January 12,
2010 with ISBN 0316065781.
