This novel is long. Too long. So much tension and detail which should be riveting and was early in the novel, was boring by half way through. It does pick up again at the end.
What I did enjoy was all the references / history of famous artworks.
The mystery of Robert Oliver obsession with a little known 18th century artist never really gets explained and the ending didn’t satisfy this for me.
There were some good parts ( like Andrew Morrow the psychiatrist)that allowed me to finish this novel. ( )

Artistic genius and insanity often go hand in hand. And in The Swan Thieves, the reader is presented with a character who definitely has this condition. The character Robert Oliver, a gifted artist develops an obsessive and twisted love for a 19th century French artist and while I enjoyed the artistic aspects of this novel I was completely unsympathetic to any of the characters that had the misfortune to fall under the sway of Oliver. Be they his wife, his mistress, his psychiatrist; I found them all to be downright silly to allow themselves to be caught up, mired in, and dragged down by Oliver's silly obsessions. ( )

Read for the trip not for the coherence of the plot. If you like Art History this is the novel for you. ( )

El psiquiatra Andrew Marlon se ha dedicado a su profesión y a su afición que es la pintura; tiene una vida solitaria, pero ordenada. Cuando el reconocido pintor Robert Oliver ataca a un lienzo en la Galería Nacional de Arte y se convierte en su paciente, Marlow encuentra ese orden destruido. Desesperado por entender el secreto que atormenta al genio, se embarca en un viaje que lo lleva más de cerca a las vidas de las mujeres de Oliver y a una tragedia en el centro del impresionismo francés. La magistral novela de Kostova viaja desde Estados Unidos hasta la costa de Normandía, desde finales del siglo XIX a finales del siglo XX, de amor de juventud a amor verdadero. El rapto del cisne es una historia de obsesión, las pérdidas de la historia, y el poder del arte para conservar la esperanza humana.

The setup and first half of this book is reasonably good mystery. An artist stabs a painting and is assigned to a mental hospital. His psychiatrist, Marlow, searches for a motive, since his patient, Robert Oliver, will not speak to him, except briefly at the beginning to give him permission to speak to others about his case. Marlow interviews Robert’s friends and relatives, going to extraordinary lengths and likely breaching professional ethics in the process. A series of 19th century letters plays a role in understanding Robert’s obsession with a particular artist.

Unfortunately, the execution falls down at about the half-way point. This book is slow in developing. There are long stretches of narration where nothing pertinent to the mystery occurs. Superfluous sex scenes are inserted for no apparent reason. Once the letters are finished, the 19th century characters act like they live in the present. And suffice it to say the reveal is a bit of a letdown.

I appreciated the sections on the artistic process, which are detailed and interesting if you are an art enthusiast. I also enjoyed listening to the audiobook, read by a cast. This was my first exposure to multiple readers, and I enjoyed hearing the different voices and accents. This method was a good choice for this book, as various characters narrate long passages in first person. Overall, it is a mixed bag: not bad, but not particularly memorable.
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