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The Maker of Swans
On sale
12th January 2017
Price: £9.99
‘Compulsive reading . . . rich, strange, beautiful’ Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk
‘A strange, new and captivating look at a magical realm . . . Lavishly entertaining’ Independent
‘Enthralling . . . a literary feast’ Stylist
The world had forgotten Mr Crowe and his mysterious gifts. Until he killed the poet.
He lived a secluded life in the fading grandeur of his country estate. His companions were his faithful manservant and his ward, Clara, a silent, bookish girl who has gifts of her own.
Now Dr Chastern, the leader of a secret society, arrives at the estate to call Crowe to account and keep his powers in check. But it is Clara’s even greater gifts that he comes to covet most.
She must learn to use them quickly, if she is to save them all.
‘A strange, new and captivating look at a magical realm . . . Lavishly entertaining’ Independent
‘Enthralling . . . a literary feast’ Stylist
The world had forgotten Mr Crowe and his mysterious gifts. Until he killed the poet.
He lived a secluded life in the fading grandeur of his country estate. His companions were his faithful manservant and his ward, Clara, a silent, bookish girl who has gifts of her own.
Now Dr Chastern, the leader of a secret society, arrives at the estate to call Crowe to account and keep his powers in check. But it is Clara’s even greater gifts that he comes to covet most.
She must learn to use them quickly, if she is to save them all.
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Reviews
A powerful thriller
The Maker of Swans combines through-the-looking-glass enchantment with Nabokovian dexterity. O'Donnell has written a mesmerizing book whose prose absolutely soars
Poetic and strange, this Gothic novel is a dark, elegant celebration of the power and beauty of words and the spells they weave.
Strange and beautiful - one of Stylist's Essential Reads for 2016
A charming, lyrical read even when tension is high. I admired the depth of O'Donnell's imagination, which allowed him to conjure up this enthralling tale . . . A literary feast
A peculiar and beautiful tale of art and magic
Sonorous, beautifully made, disquieting
[With much] in common with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell ... a tale about magic and art, power and responsibility ... [that will] keep the reader enfolded
A fabulously assured, elegant Gothic-flavoured tale
An oddly beautiful tale of magic and art, this reminded me of Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes
Compulsive reading . . . rich, strange, beautiful
It would not be surprising if the public clamours for a second instalment of this vividly imagined and deeply pleasurable gothic fantasy - not to mention a film.
Wonderfully dark, magical
Strange and new and captivating
I devoured this book and it kept me guessing right to the very end . . . Line by line, Paraic's writing contains some of the most beautifully turned phrasing I've read in a long while
Dazzlingly inventive, compelling
Exquisite
The prose in O'Donnell's first novel is glorious, combining an ear for deep cadences of language with a phenomenal acuity of vision ... O'Donnell is clearly a major talent