Swan

In the graceful, lyrical style that her readers have come to love, Frances Mayes is again doing what she does best - writing masterfully and intimately about people in a powerful and shaping place. This time, instead of her beloved Tuscany, Frances has turned to writing about a place she knows even better, the Deep South.

Set in South Georgia, where Frances Mayes was born and raised, this is a haunting novel about the mystery of a family matriarch's life and death and the hidden secrets of a families past. As the novel opens an archaeologist is drawn back to the her home town of Swan when her mother's body is mysteriously exhumed nineteen years after her death, bringing to light long-buried family secrets and small town mysteries.

On one level 'Swan' is a suspenseful and absorbing mystery, and on another, it is an affecting novel of the power of family and the consequences of hidden truths. This novel vividly evokes the rhythms and textures of life in the Deep South through Frances' use of its unique language, her innate ability to capture its idiosyncratic characters, her unerring sense of time and place and her talent as a storyteller.