In 2005 Elizabeth Kostova became the first debut author to hit the New York Times bestseller list at #1, with her novel The Historian (also reviewed on Myshelf.com). Since that time The Historian has been sold more than 1.5 million copies and has been published in 44 different languages, Fans of The Historian cite her deep research and power to build characters and carry them across centuries as reasons for such success.

In The Swan Thieves Kostova once more relies on research and characters to build another wonderful story.

Having listened to the audio version I was quite impressed with how they used multiple readers to portray the different characters. This made the characters more real and three dimensional.

The story centers on a renowned artist, Robert Oliver, who attacks a painting at the National Gallery of Art.

Oliver has attacked a painting depicting the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan. In the 1700s Louis dOrleans, a member of the French Royal family also attacked a painting of this subject.

Robert is taken to psychiatric facility to be treated.

His case is assigned to Andrew Marlowe, who is a psychiatrist and is also a gifted painter. Oliver gives Marlowe permission to talk to and question whomever he pleases to determine the reason behind his attack... and then promptly refuses to speak again for the next 11 months. At this point the story picks up and moves from present moment to the early 19th century and travels from North Carolina to New York and France and Mexico in an attempt to discover what has caused Oliver's grand obsession.

As Marlowe investigates the case he becomes enthralled and even obsessed with the women in Oliver's life.

Elizabeth Kostova is a very talented writer who is highly descriptive. Using different readers to narrate made the book much more enjoyable and easier to follow the different viewpoints and time periods.