Swan Song

An Odyssey

Lisa Alther

$49.99

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Alfred A. Knopf
09 June 2020

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

A new novel, funny, wise, moving, true, as only Lisa Alther can write (""she had me laughing at 4 in the morning"" --Doris Lessing), set on a cruise ship, about a woman, a doctor in charge of the ship's clinic, recovering from the loss of her longtime female lover, a much-admired writer, and coping with the high-wire madcappery of cruise ship life as she reckons with her past and feels her way into the future.

A new novel, funny, wise, moving, true, as only Lisa Alther can write (""she had me laughing at 4 in the morning"" --Doris Lessing), set on a cruise ship, about a woman, a doctor in charge of the ship's clinic, recovering from the loss of her longtime female lover, a much-admired writer, and coping with the high-wire madcappery of cruise ship life as she reckons with her past and feels her way into the future.

Dr. Jessie Drake, in her mid-sixties, following the sudden deaths of her parents and Kat, her partner of twenty years, has fled the Vermont life she has known for decades.

In an effort to escape the oppressive constancy of grief, she accepts a job from an old flame from her residency in New York City's Roosevelt Hospital, and agrees to assist Ben as the ship's doctor on a British liner. Jessie boards in Hong Kong, and, as the Amphitrite sails throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East, cruise ship antics ensue. Jessie is lulled back into a long-ago romance with the ship's co-doctor, and both she and her new/old beau become enmeshed with the ship's lead (female) singer/entertainer. Among the passengers who fling socialized behavior aside on the high seas- a former Florida beauty queen (Miss Florida Power and Light) on a second honeymoon with her husband, as she causes high-velocity scandal, while juggling onboard affairs with a suicidal golf pro, and a defrocked priest hired as one of the liner's gentleman hosts, until she vanishes--poof!--from the ship off the coast of Portugal . . . As the ship sails through the Gulf of Aden and into a possible hijacking by Somali pirates, Jessie retreats into her lover's journals, written during her final months, journals filled with sketches of potential characters, observations on life and love--as well as drafts of a long new poem in progress, ""Swan Song,"" that seems to be about being in love with someone else, someone new. As Jessie's grief turns to suspicion about the woman she thought she knew so well, her illumination of the poem's meaning begins to lift the constraints of the past and make clear the way toward the future.

By: Lisa Alther
Imprint: Alfred A. Knopf
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 143mm, Spine: 17mm
Weight: 410g
ISBN: 9780525657545
ISBN 10: 0525657541
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 09 June 2020
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

LISA ALTHER was born and grew up in Tennessee. She has written eight novels, among them Kinflicks, a feminist coming-of-age chronicle. Her other books include Original Sins, Other Women, Bedrock, and a book of conversations between Alther and the painter Fran oise Gilot (About Women). Alther's books have been published in seventeen languages and have appeared on best-seller lists worldwide. She lives in Vermont and Tennessee.

Reviews for Swan Song: An Odyssey

""Swan Song covers a lot of ground and embraces a divergent array of tones ... A journey worth taking.""--Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times ""The language is so delicious, I keep re-reading each chapter just to savor it again.""--Janis Ian, singer-songwriter of ""At Seventeen"" and ""Society's Child"" ""Alther has looked into the heart of late-in-life grief and divested it of the maudlin; the result is something smarter, darker, and better ... Wistful but resolutely unsentimental.""--Shelf Awareness (starred review) ""Alther infuses the book with delightful comic elements ... [she] is an entertaining, yet challenging guide on this well-crafted voyage of transformation and yearned-for societal change.""--A! Magazine ""A female coming-of-age tale that's bound to resonate profoundly with those who are, like Jessie, in their 'young old age'. Those who aren't yet there will relish the novel's wit, erudition, and charm, which come through on every page.""--Chapter16.org

LATEST SALES & OFFERS: PROMOTIONS

Swan Song

An Odyssey

Lisa Alther

$49.99

Hardback

Reviews for Swan Song: An Odyssey

See Inside

See Also

Contact Abbeys

Contact Galaxy

Contact Language

Contact Us

About ABBEY'S