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Swan Song
- Narrated by: Debora Weston
- Length: 17 hrs and 51 mins
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Swan Song
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Summary
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019
They told him everything.
He told everyone else.
Over countless martini-soaked Manhattan lunches, they shared their deepest secrets and greatest fears. On exclusive yachts sailing the Mediterranean, on private jets streaming towards Jamaica, on Yucatán beaches in secluded bays, they gossiped about sex, power, money, love and fame. They never imagined he would betray them so absolutely.
In the autumn of 1975, after two decades of intimate friendships, Truman Capote detonated a literary grenade, forever rupturing the elite circle he’d worked so hard to infiltrate. Why did he do it, knowing what he stood to lose? Was it to punish them? To make them pay for their manners, money and celebrated names? Or did he simply refuse to believe that they could ever stop loving him? Whatever the motive, one thing remains indisputable: nine years after achieving wild success with In Cold Blood, Capote committed an act of professional and social suicide with his most lethal of weapons...words.
A dazzling debut about the line between gossip and slander, self-creation and self-preservation, Swan Song is the tragic story of the literary icon of his age and the beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women he called his Swans.
‘Writers write. And one can’t be surprised if they write what they know.’
Critic reviews
"A completely fascinating novel and a marvellously skillful re-imagining of real people, times and places. Outstanding." (William Boyd)
"Scandalous, frenetic, amusing and tragic." (Daily Mail)
"Our generation’s The Secret History." (Pendora)
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What listeners say about Swan Song
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Joanne
- 08-07-19
A good entertaining biography
I very much enjoyed this account of someone whose life I didn't know well BUT the last few chapters are redundant and tedious as they are imagined thoughts of Capote as he is dying. Still read it but when it gets to the well weird post death part - don't bother.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- SThomas
- 20-07-19
Fascinating, but long
A beautifully written insight into that world and the narrator is fabulous. It just felt very very long.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Colin
- 25-11-19
Extraordinary accomplishment
Superbly written and beautifully narrated. The author has crafted this so lovingly it really is a work of art. I knew very little about Truman Capote and the people who influenced him and vice versa.
It’s hard to criticise such an accomplishment . . . so I’m not going to. This is so cleverly written, with so much depth and loving detail. Read it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- S. A.
- 11-04-21
Stunning
Really fascinating. Loved it. Draws you into an incredible world of beautiful people. Absorbing. Feel I know Capote.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Annie
- 01-08-20
Read For A Book Group!
I think I marked this hard as I read it for a book group.
It wasn’t far off something I would have chosen, but the protagonists were all vacuous & I disliked them!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Angela Eden
- 24-06-19
Swan song
This book is amazing! Completely intriguing and beautifully written. It's like nothing else I've read. The research is painstaking. It is written with humour and empathy.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- gmb
- 28-08-18
A tour de force
What a simply wonderful book. Totally engrossing. Deborah Weston is to be congratulated for bringing to life all the fascinating characters to be found in the pages, especially Truman Capote himself. Kellogg Greenberg-Jephcott has written a masterpiece.
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20 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- ks goodey
- 23-06-19
Outstanding narration
Enjoyed the book and the performance and delivery was truly brilliant Truman was a book worth listening to.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- T
- 10-07-19
I loved it
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. extremely well written and delivered, the narrator really brought the book to life for me. a highly reccomended purchase.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- R
- 23-09-20
Capote and his Swans live on
I have always loved Truman Capote’s work since my first breakfast with Holly outside Tiffany’s. Kelleigh Greenberg’s-Jephcott brings his written voice and his teal voice to life in her writing while Debora Weston has it brilliantly.
Truman and the Swans are so individual, complete and fascinating in writing and performance I felt I was standing or sitting next to them.
The era is portrayed in all its hedonistic self absorption, contradictions and glamour.
Excellent.
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