THE SWAN

by Gudbergur Bergsson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 30, 1998

This limpid novel, which won for its Icelandic author his country's 1991 Literary Prize, tells in a lyrical style replete with sensuous descriptive passages and quirky metaphors the story of a nine-year-old girl punished for shoplifting by incarceration on a rustic ""work farm."" In fact, her new home is a kind of unpretentious fairyland where human dwellers (her lenient employers, their pregnant daughter, a convivial farmhand) and animal presences (horses, a lamb, and the enigmatic title creature) alike imbue her with a resilience capable of enduring the ""vast hopelessness"" that afflicts her homeland. A winning combination of subtle psychological study, beast fable, and prose poem rendered into graceful, haunting English prose.

Pub Date: March 30, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 152

Publisher: Mare's Nest--dist. by Dufour

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998

Categories: FICTION