A beautiful fantasy fiction novel about 15-year-old Laura, and her encounter with a magical fairytale during Christmas.
Blurb:
Following her brother's death and her mother's emotional breakdown, Laura now lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in a lonely townhouse she shares with her old-world, strict, often querulous grandparents. But the arrangement may be temporary. The quiet, awkward teenager has been getting into trouble at home and has been expelled from her high school for throwing a record album at a popular girl who bullied her. When Christmas is over and the new year begins, Laura may find herself at boarding school in Montreal.
Nearly unmoored from reality through her panic and submerged grief, Laura is startled when a handsome swan boy with only one wing lands on her roof. Hiding him from her ever-bickering grandparents, Laura tries to build the swan boy a wing so he can fly home. But the task is too difficult to accomplish herself. Little does Laura know that her struggle to find help for her new friend parallels that of her grandparents, who are desperate for a distant relative’s financial aid to save the family store.
As he explores themes of class, isolation, family, and the dangerous yearning to be saved by a power greater than ourselves, Gregory Maguire conjures a haunting, beautiful tale of magical realism that illuminates one young woman’s heartbreak and hope as she begins the inevitable journey to adulthood.
Review:
A wild winter swan by Gregory Maguire is a mythical fantasy retelling (probably) of the fairytale 'The Wild Winter Swans'. I never read the actual story, but thankfully the author has included the actual story of wild winter swans. The story of Eliza and her 11 brothers, who were turned into swans by the evil queen. Eliza took it upon herself to return her brothers back into their human forms. After much struggle, she found a way to return them to their actual state. All she had to do was weave shirts for all her brothers from a magical thread. She finished 10 of them, but the last one was not complete. It had a missing arm, which turned her youngest brother, Hans, into a human boy except for that missing arm.
This book isn't a proper retelling, but more like what happens after Hans (the youngest brother), couldn't turn completely into a boy and is left with a wing for a hand. Hans somehow ended up on Laura's balcony with no memories of his life whatsoever. It's a challenge for Laura to keep him a secret and help him escape without getting herself caught in-between.
From the start, I was skeptical about Hans's existence in Laura's life. Since Laura had gone through a lot of trauma, it felt like Hans was just a mere figment of her imagination rather than a reality. She lost her father, then her brother, and then her mother abandoned her and left her in the care of her grandparents. Finally, when she was asked to move to Montreal to another school, she was devastated. This is what might have triggered an escape mechanism in her mind, and made the whole story of having Hans in her house (Also since she read the story the same day to the little kids). But until the end, there wasn't any discussion if that was the case, or if it was really Hans in her house. I guess that's the beauty of the story, you get to chose what you want to believe in. Isn't that the case with all fantasy fiction ;)
Gregory's writing style was very poetic and I enjoyed it immensely. The book gives you such Christmas vibes with hot chocolate, snowfall, cozy winter weather, and loads of festivities. I guess it got me excited for Christmas next month. Also, the inclusion of Italian culture was nice to read.
I liked the story, but it was a little slow read for me. The story as a whole was nicely written, but there wasn't any character, that fascinated me much. Laura was a child who was bullied in school, had no family except for her Nonna & Nonno, but her character didn't intrigue me much.
Again, it's a beautiful story on a whole, but there's nothing much going on. It could have been shorter (like a short story), and I would have enjoyed it over a cup of coffee.
But yes, it's a nice fairytale retelling to read during Christmas in front of a fireplace.
Also, do check out some amazing reviews by some amazing reviewers.
