The first in a quartet of fantasy novels, The Year the Swans Came is the forerunner of The Children of Zeus trilogy to be published in 2019/2020.
Growing up
amidst the ruins of war, four children play among the bridges and cobblestone
walkways of the old city. Pieter Bader, the eldest, wants to work in the family
business, designers of mirrors for royalty since the 17th century,
while his young sister, Maidy, dreams of becoming a writer, weaving stories of
swashbuckling pirates and princesses, who wear sandals made from the silken
thread of a spider. Her best friend is Ruth, a young Jewish girl, whose family
returned to the city after the war. Slightly the older, rich and very
beautiful, Ruth dreams of marrying Pieter, only for him to vanish
from their lives late one night.
Is Pieter’s disappearance
linked to the arrival of the swans, feared as cursed and birds of ill-fortune?
What will happen when
they return six years later, on the morning of Maidy’s sixteenth birthday?
And who exactly is the
charismatic and mysterious Zande?
Follow Ruth and Maidy’s
cursed tale of love as they discover what happened to Pieter, how the
appearance of Zande will affect both their lives, unleashing events as tragic
and fantastical as one of Maidy’s stories.
Review by Mary Anne Yarde.
The Coffee Pot Book Club.
14
January 2020
With a lusciously detailed narrative
that mesmerised me from the opening chapter, The Year The Swans Came is in all
ways a work of exceptional scholarship. This book, these characters, captured
my imagination, and I was swept away to a world that is vivid, evocative, and
utterly irresistible. Words cannot express how much I loved this book. The
brilliance is in the writing. The Year The Swans Came is in all ways, an
absolute triumph.
With an elegant turn of phrase and a
visceral understanding of human fragility, Spencer has presented her readers
with some unforgettable characters. The heroine of this story, Maidy, is a
character that I simply adored. Maidy reminded me a little of Hans Christian
Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling. Maidy believes herself plain,
unattractive even. She lives in the shadow of her best-friend — the very
glamorous Ruth, who all the boys at college want to date. But like that ugly
duckling, there is a swan, a beautiful, graceful, caring swan just waiting to
fluff her feathers and step into the light. Maidy is entirely ignorant of how
she is perceived by others, especially Zande, who is the male version of Ruth.
However, her goodness is incorruptible — even Zande, who is free with his love,
does not attempt to corrupt her. Maidy is an extremely likeable character and
one I came to care about very much. This story is told from her point of view,
which I thought gave this book a sense of authenticity, as well as a sense of
realism.
All the characters in this book are
fabulous, and each has their role to play. One of the characters that I took a
strong dislike to was Ruth. Ruth is incredibly self-centred and a truly
terrible friend. She is self-seeking and does not care for the pain she causes
others. Ruth uses her good looks and her father’s money to get what she wants
regardless of the consequences. Maidy slowly comes to realise the kind of
person Ruth is, and as she does so, Maidy does not like what she sees. But even
as they begin to drift apart, Maidy still cannot see how exceptional she is in
her own right — Maidy still believes that Ruth is the one that all the boys
want to be with, which isn’t true. Ruth is not quite an antagonist, I wouldn’t
go that far, but her egotistical behaviours certainly demonstrates the goodness
that is in Maidy’s soul.
I have to mention Zande — Zande, with
his charm and easy smile which hide a lifetime of sorrow and a soul that is
trapped. He is in every way a bad-boy, the one you don’t want your daughter
dating. But, Maidy sees past the facade and glimpses a deep and terrible pain
that she does not understand and can never understand. I thought Zande’s
depiction was fabulous.
I could not but help the strong
emotional reaction that I had for these characters, and I was impressed by
Spencer’s scope and brilliance in their creation. Pieter, Hans, Tristan, Jaan,
Zande, Ruth, and Maidy all bring something unique to this story. Wonderful,
wonderful characterisation. It doesn’t get better than this.
Strangely, no dates are mentioned in
this book, only that there had been a war and the community had been invaded at
one point by the enemy — one can only assume it is set after World War II and
that Ruth’s family are Jewish. But surprisingly, the era seems almost timeless.
It matters not what the date is, only that the story is so incredibly
captivating. There is magic in the words that Spencer has written, a swirling
of emotions that swept me up into its warm embrace. However, as the story picks
up momentum and races headlong towards a catastrophically explosive ending, I found
myself screaming silently in my head the word NO! And by the
time I read the last word and noted the final full-stop, I was sobbing quietly
to myself. Spencer demands every conceivable emotion from her readers, and boy
does she get it. Be sure to have a box of Kleenex with you because believe me
you are going to need it.
The Year The Swans Came is something
extraordinary indeed. This is a book that not only deserves your attention — it
deserves it again and again until the spine of the book breaks and the pages
start to fall out, and you need to purchase another copy. That, is how good
this book is.
If you are looking for your next great
adventure which will leave you gasping and begging for more then check out The
Year the Swans Came by Barbara Spencer. You won’t be disappointed. I cannot
wait to read the second book in this fabulous series.
I Highly Recommend.
Ebook Publication: September 2018 : Amazon.co.uk £2.99
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