The Golden Swan

Description

A shape-shifter and an errant soul share an unbreakable bond and a curse, and must join together to fulfill an ancient magical prophecy in Nancy Springer's final installment of the Book of Isle , and the face of the stranger to whom he was eternally linked, the wanderer called Frain. But this mysterious youth who can feel everything Dair feels-his emotions, his anxieties, his pain-bears an obligation to a lost love and a curse of dark enchantment. Still, the bond that unites Dair and Frain is stronger than iron, and in their mystical union rests the fate of a troubled land. Reviewers have compared the volumes in Nancy Springer's enthralling Book of Isle series to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and other masters of fantasy literature. The captivating saga concludes spectacularly with an unforgettable tale of duty, friendship, peril, fate, and love that adds a new richness and color to this remarkable island realm and its magical inhabitants.

Nancy Springer has passed the fifty-book milestone with novels for adults, young adults, and children, in genres including mythic fantasy, contemporary fiction, magic realism, horror, and mystery-although she did not realize she wrote mystery until she won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America two years in succession. Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Springer moved with her family to Gettysburg, of Civil War fame, when she was thirteen. She spent the next forty-six years in Pennsylvania, raising two children (Jonathan and Nora), writing, horseback riding, fishing, and bird-watching. In 2007 she surprised her friends and herself by moving with her second husband to an isolated area of the Florida Panhandle where the bird-watching is spectacular, and where, when fishing, she occasionally catches an alligator.

"Nancy Springer writes like a dream." -St. Louis Post-Dispatch "[Nancy Springer is] someone special in the fantasy field." -Anne McCaffrey