Review: Swan Song

Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
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Genre: Literary Fiction
​Page Length: 480 Pages
Publication Date: 14 June 2018
Publisher: Cornerstone

Stars:  5 out of 5

LINKS: Amazon (UK)

ABOUT SWAN SONG

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.

My Review:

From the opening of the first chapter I was hooked. It was the Bank Holiday Monday and I wanted the day to continue until I had finished Ms Greenberg-Jephcott's debut novel. The book is beautifully written; the words are sumptuous and culminate in satisfying sentences, leaving a delightful afternoon cocktail-infused aftertaste. 

In the autumn of Truman Capote's life, there is an almighty sadness when he hangs his 'swans' out to dry. From chapter-to-chapter, I found myself searching the internet to find the real version of events, only to humbled by the detailed research and truth in the Swan Song story. Truth is stranger than fiction. The gossip of the novel is infectious, every page leaves you wanting to know more.

It's incredibly difficult not to be excited for Ms Greenburg-Jephcott's next offering. 

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.