The Maker of Swans

ebook / ISBN-13: 9781474600385

Price: £9.99

ON SALE: 1st February 2016

Genre: Fiction & Related Items / Crime & Mystery / Historical Mysteries

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‘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.

Reviews

Strange and new and captivating
THE INDEPENDENT
Sonorous, beautifully made, disquieting
THE SPECTATOR
Poetic and strange, this Gothic novel is a dark, elegant celebration of the power and beauty of words and the spells they weave.
SUNDAY EXPRESS
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
Laura Barnett, author of THE VERSIONS OF US
Exquisite
Liz Nugent, author of LYING IN WAIT
Strange and beautiful - one of Stylist's Essential Reads for 2016
STYLIST
Wonderfully dark, magical
ELLE
A fabulously assured, elegant Gothic-flavoured tale
WOMAN AND HOME
[With much] in common with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell ... a tale about magic and art, power and responsibility ... [that will] keep the reader enfolded
DAILY MAIL
A peculiar and beautiful tale of art and magic
STYLIST.CO.UK
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
STYLIST
The Maker of Swans combines through-the-looking-glass enchantment with Nabokovian dexterity. O'Donnell has written a mesmerizing book whose prose absolutely soars
Sandra Newman, author of THE COUNTRY OF ICE CREAM STAR
Dazzlingly inventive, compelling
Jane Casey, author of THE BURNING
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
THE GUARDIAN
A powerful thriller
VOGUE
Compulsive reading . . . rich, strange, beautiful
Helen Macdonald, author of H IS FOR HAWK
An oddly beautiful tale of magic and art, this reminded me of Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes
Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of THE LAST ACT OF LOVE
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.
FINANCIAL TIMES