Beautifully researched, atmospheric and engaging throughout: this is historical fiction at its finest. Well done, Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott. I'll definitely look for more by this author.

I find the story of Truman fascinating so I so badly wanted to love this but unfortunately I found myself bored.

Sadly, I just could not finish it! It was just a bit too boring for me. Don't get me wrong Kelleigh Greenberg - Jephcott has that an amazing job by researching the topic especially Truman's social life and his swans, but yeah not my thing!

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.

A mix of topics that are always going to have me hooked - Truman Capote and the salacious gossip that whirled around him. I wasn't sure what to expect from Swan Song and you did have to keep your wits around to keep everything on track but I loved hearing the story of Truman through his 'swans' - the women he took into his confidence and, ultimately, betrayed.

Quite an epic, wonderfully written book that took me a while to read but in a very satisfying way.

This was stunning and atmospheric and I don't know why it took me so long to get round to reading it. So evocative and characterful.

This was one of the best books I read of the year. The author flawlessly builds her characters and explores their lives and the intersection of their lives with Capote's brilliantly. This book keep you turning the pages until the very end.

Thought provoking and on the whole enjoyable. Beautifully written, if at sometimes a little hard to follow. Interesting literary concepts employed.

A large cast of characters and some different narration techniques meant it wasn't always easy to follow the plot.

The picture painted of Capote was enightening and illustrative.

An enjoyable if slightly overlong read.

Oh this book was total heaven! The gossip and the glamour and the deceitful two faced gossipy nature of New York society was so enjoyable to dive into, Yes it is a narcissistic, shallow world but it was a world where they were striving to save face and hold their power against all odds. Super interesting to understand more about a moment in time with real life players in an imagined world.

I really wanted to love this tale based on true events about scandal, betrayal and gossip between the glitterati of New York. When I saw this on Netgalley and saw it had been longlisted for the Women's Prize For Fiction I was keen to give it a try. I mean just look at that cover; it evokes a sense of gossip and scandal in a past era.

The story is about Truman Capote around the time of his most controversial publication, Answered Prayers. I have to admit I haven't read any Truman Capote, but I have a second-hand copy of In Cold Blood waiting on my bedside table, and I'm determined to read it before the year is out. I thought this might be a nice warm-up for it, but it didn't really work out that way.

This book is less about what made Capote a success, and much more about his downfall. There's glimmers of the literary icon's spark and genius but these are mainly overshadowed by the repetitive derogatory language used to describe him - as a short, self-obsessed child. It's told from the point of view of his 'Swans' - the posse of glamorous socialites he brings into his inner circle, before he reveals their deepest secrets in a scandalising series of chapters for his upcoming book. This chorus of narrators and the use of 'we' was innovative, but it took me a long time to keep track of who's who, the Swans blended together into a picture of the overprivileged elite and the distant tone made it difficult to relate.

I really wanted to love this one; a tale of the glitterati of the 60s, 70s and 80s, packed with glamour, scandal and writing sounded great, but in reality there were long, dull stretches filled with ladies who lunch and superficial gossip. There were multiple times I was very close to abandoning this book, but I persevered and it does improve slightly as the Swans disassociate with Truman and it instead becomes quite a tragic story of a lonely genius at his breaking points. But it was never really truly exciting or emotional for me.

There's a lot of name-dropping throughout, and it may be that you'd appreciate this novel more than I did if you're aware of some the people mentioned before reading. To be honest, I had barely heard of any of Truman's Swans, but I did enjoy looking them up in retrospect after reading about fictional selves. The real life events this story is based in are fascinating, and the book left me captivated by Capote and wanting to learn more about his story, which is a sign of a good piece of historical fiction in itself. But for me it was a hard slog to get to the good stuff in this one; I struggled to bring myself to really like anyone involved in the story and wanted more of Capote himself rather than his Swan entourage. I wish I'd liked this one more, but I'll never stop wanting to read about eccentric literary geniuses.

I'm sorry, I have only ever given up on one other book. I could not finish this book, in fact I only got 20% through it. I found it repetitive, boring, with a subject matter that I have absolutely no interest in, with very little relevance to the present day. The old fashioned ideas of social standing and marriages. I had not heard of Truman Capote, the American Socialite/journalist. Rather untrustworthy and stirrer of rumour and confidences from this report.

I've not read anything by Truman Capote but I was intrigued when this book kept popping up on book blogs. I'm so glad I made the decision to read it as I found the story fascinating. Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott explores the world of Truman Capote and his 'swans'- a collection of wealthy, well-known women of the time who considered him their close friend. He considered them friends too, yet this did not stop him from sharing their secrets and those they had shared others. Capote wrote an article for Esquire magazine called 'La Cote Basque 1965' which divulged some of high society's best kept secrets. The swans were horrified and ended their friendship with him. Capote spent many years trying to win them all back but he died alone and friendless nine years later.
Swan Song contains so much, it looks at the role of the author, familial relationships, society, class, friendship, money, power and fame. I felt like I was offered a glimpse into a world I knew nothing about and one I would not want to spend a lot of time in.
Truman Capote was clearly a complex man with many, many issues. I felt that the author did an excellent job of showing this. There were times when I felt sorry for him and others where he was completely abhorrent.
Don't be put off if you haven't read any of Capote's books, I'm going to now that I've read this and I actually feel like I will get more from them due to having read Swan Song an finding out about his life.


I can highly recommend Swan Song, it is insightful and captivating.

Each one of the 'swans' was a special friend of Truman Capote, revelling in his waspish sense of humour and loving being entertained by him. The six society woman were all horrified when Capote published an extract from his memoir in which several of them were described in unflattering terms and that secrets they had confided were displayed in public. Deciding to get their revenge the Swans blank Capote which distresses him. This is the story of six society women, proud, powerful and publicly known.
I absolutely loved this book. It tells the story of Truman Capote, self-made man of words from a small town in the South who becomes friendly with the society belles of the day. It also tells the tale of each and how Truman's fall affected them. The writing is beautiful, offering an opening into shelves of the insecure super-rich and the infidelities of their husbands.

Truman Capote his a fascinating character, he wrote the novels that became the films that became the backdrop to an era. Swan Song creates fiction out the fact that he allowed a fragment of his final novel to be published that told the thinly veiled scandalous secrets of his best friends. Seven wives of stupendously wealth men. They responded to the betrayal by freezing him out. Their tale is told by leaping back and forth in time. You feel sympathy for all them and emerge feeling that you have spent time in the highest of high society that the East Coast of America had to offer in the middle of the 2oth century. A fascinating and eye opening read.

Enjoyed reading this well written book about high society gossip and capote’s downfall. Well written and kept me hooked until the end.

When I picked this book up, I was completely ignorant about Capote and his Swans. A fictional account based on real people and real background events made for some intriguing narrative. I was drawn in by the original style of writing and perspective although found some of the content too gossipy despite that being precisely the point of it. It has made me want to find out more about the characters so in that sense the book was a success albeit tragic on so many levels.

I didn't know much about Truman Capote before I picked up this novel, but I was intrigued by the idea of telling his story through the women he was closest to - his 'Swans', a group of wealthy socialites who gave him access to their privileged lives and darkest secrets before he betrayed them by writing thinly-disguised versions of their stories. I was interested in how biography can become fiction, although I soon realised that Capote himself was a master of blurring the lines between truth and fiction as several sections in this novel show - key events are told and retold from different perspectives and with dramatic features added, so the reader is always aware that truth is an illusion.

The novel covers the period between the 1930s (when Capote is a child) and the 1980s when Capote is living in relative exile following his controversial decision to fictionalise his Swans' lives in print. The narrative switches between Capote himself and his friends, a collection of wealthy and influential women whose names are often familiar to us - we see Jackie Kennedy and her sister Lee Radziwill, Babe Paley, CZ Guest, a Churchill and the Guinesses among others. The story then drops in so many familiar faces and names that Google is a necessary companion to this novel - Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow, Gore Vidal, John and Bobby Kennedy, Harper Lee... the list goes on as Greenberg-Jephcott draws a vivid picture of the social whirls surrounding Capote.

I know that other reviewers have mentioned that they found the book confusing and I can see this - the timeline does skip around a bit and the cast list is extensive, although I found the more I read, the clearer the distinctions between the women and their individual lives became. Some reviewers have also said that the characters are unpleasant and unsympathetic, but I didn't find this at all. They are undoubtedly self-absorbed, but I think that the novel shows that lives that seem gilded still have problems. Yes, the ladies lunch and are extravagant and spoilt, but they also seem human and their lives aren't perfect. Capote himself is a challenging figure - bitchy and clever and untrustworthy, but his background and final days still evoke pathos. I found myself caught up in these glamorous yet often tragic lives and feel that the book will stay with me for some time.

Overall, I think this is a superb piece of writing that vividly evokes a particular historical era and social set. I thought it was beautifully written and fascinating - I definitely want to learn more about the real lives of the characters and even read some Capote, something I now feel is a shameful gap in my reading history! It's a long book and challenging in places, but it's also compelling and engaging. It's been thoroughly researched and lovingly written and is definitely worth a read.

Full of scandal, betrayal and glamour which goes hand in hand. It is rich in content a great read.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Random House UK Cornerstone for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

This is an astonishing literary fiction debut. Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott has done a very clever thing - written a semi-fictionalised account of a semi-fictionalised account. Truman Capote was the trusted confidant of much of New York society, listening to their intimate worries and travelling the world with them. His inner circle became known as the Swans, and included Jackie Kennedy's sister Princess Lee Radziwill, Gloria Guinness and C.Z. Guest. But Capote decided to write a thinly disguised book about the Swans and they saw this as the ultimate betrayal (he never finished the book, but one chapter, La Côte Basque, was published in Esquire in 1975).

This book swaps between the viewpoints of the Swans and Capote and must have taken an enormous amount of research, It's a sumptuous sweep of a book, moving from both the peak of the friendships to the betrayal, and the voices come loud and clear through the pages. I loved it, but it's a rich multi-course meal - take your time and savour it. It's not one to be rushed. You might need to read a palette cleanser afterwards.

I’ve given this book 3 stars but to be honest that feels generous. Whilst this author clearly has talent I found the book overlong and quite difficult to follow at times. She is clearly a great admirer of Capote, which is why I find it strange that ultimately there is so little warmth in the book. The characters, and by default the real people of this story, come across as so obnoxious that I really couldn’t care about the ‘expose’ or his expulsion from their lives.
Capote is considered a literary genius. I don’t know how true that is, I always feel that it is a term that’s used too readily these days. His demise into drug and alcohol abuse seemed to have started long before the expose so I can’t help thinking that the end would have been the same even if he hadn’t lost their friendship.
I struggled to finish the book and have to give credit to the author as enough of the book was fascinating in a grotesque kind of way and there are parts that are very well written. But it’s far too long and I found the constant referral to Capote as ‘the boy’ very irritating. I’m not sure that the life of a man who was so obsessed with cultivating friendships with the rich and famous and ones who seemed to be constantly bitching about each other warrants such attention.
My thanks to Netgalley for this copy.