By the #1 bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun, Bella Tuscany and In Tuscany, Swan is a haunting novel set in the deep South -- a resonant tale of long-buried family secrets and mysteries brought suddenly to light. In her celebrated memoirs of life in Tuscany, Frances Mayes writes masterfully about people in a powerful and shaping place. In Swan, her first novel, she has created an equally intimate world, rich with striking characters and intriguing twists of fate, that hearkens back to her southern roots. The Masons are a prominent but now fragmented family who have lived for generations in Swan, an edenic, hidebound small town in Georgia. As Swan opens, a bizarre crime pulls Ginger Mason home from her life as an archeologist in Italy: The body of her mother, Catherine, a suicide nineteen years before, has been mysteriously exhumed. Reunited on new terms with her troubled, isolated brother J.J., who has never ventured far from Swan, the Mason children grapple with the profound effects of their mother's life and death on their own lives. When a new explanation for Catherine's death emerges, and other closely guarded family secrets rise to the surface as well, Ginger and J.J. are confronted with startling truths about their family, a particular ordeal in a family and a town that wants to keep the past buried. Beautifully evoking the rhythms and idiosyncrasies of the deep South while telling an utterly compelling story of the complexity of family ties, Swan marks the remarkable fiction debut of one of America's best-loved writers. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Combining elements from her own life abroad and at home, Mayes presents her first novel, after a series of wildly popular Italian memoirs (Under the Tuscan Sun, etc.). The author, a Georgia native, has much working in her favor: she's built up a legion of loyal readers through her nonfiction, and this tale which takes place in a Steel Magnolias-like sleepy Southern town offers the tried and true matters of family saga, mystery and Americana. The Mason family has owned cotton mills and other valuable real estate in the town of Swan, Ga. for generations. J.J. and Ginger Mason lost their mother, Catherine, when they were children. Now they are in their early 30s, and Ginger is living where else? in Tuscany, working as an archeologist; J.J. is still in Swan, a sort of reclusive mountain man who spends his days sketching the arrowheads he finds on fishing trips. They're reunited when bad news surfaces: Catherine's body has mysteriously been dug up, 19 years after her death. Ginger flies home, and she and J.J., while at a loss as to whodunit, begin to unearth previously unknown details about their mother's life. With the steady if not necessarily riveting mystery serving as a base plot, Mayes weaves various side stories involving the unfortunate demise of Ginger and J.J.'s father and the fate of their grandfather's mistress, among others. Mayes's writing is smooth and her homespun evocations of the steamy South are moving. And although the story begins to lose its oomph after 200 or so pages, this is a pleasurable read that will please Mayes's devotees.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Fans of Mayes's memoirs about her life in Italy (Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany) will not be disappointed by her first novel, which is set in a backwater town in Mayes's native Georgia. The Masons are the richest family in Swan, but their money couldn't protect them from tragedy. When Ginger and her brother J.J. were children, their beautiful and loving mother committed suicide; their father suffered a stroke soon afterwards, and the children were raised by their Aunt Lily. Now in their thirties, Ginger works as an archaeologist in Tuscany, while J.J. spends most of his time hunting and fishing. But all that changes when their mother's grave is ransacked, and the subsequent investigation proves beyond a doubt that Catherine Mason was actually murdered. As Ginger and J.J. begin to unravel the truth about the past, they also begin to accept their own and others' weaknesses. Mayes clearly never met a quirky character she didn't like, and she's seemingly put every one of them in this book, whether or not they move the plot forward (and most do not). This slows down the pace considerably, especially because these secondary characters aren't well delineated. With that caveat, this remains a solid read, sure to please readers who enjoy Southern fiction.-Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, SeattleCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Mayes, author of the very popular nonfiction accounts Under the Tuscan Sun (1996) and Bella Tuscan(1999), grounds her first novel in her childhood home of Georgia. The small town of Swan, chartered by John Mason and reigned over by his son, Big Jim, was rocked by the suicide in 1956 of Catherine Mason, wife of Big Jim's doctor son, Wills, and mother of 14-year-old J. J and 12-year-old Ginger, who found her mother's body. When Catherine's grave is desecrated and her body exhumed 19 years later, the event turns from tragic to cathartic when an investigation shows that she was murdered, lifting the pall of shame, anger, guilt, and fear from her family. J. J and Ginger had kept a close bond even though their lives had taken different directions; loner J. J., a mostly absent property manager, lives in the family cabin, fishing, hunting, and keeping journals, while Ginger, after a failed marriage and many rootless years, found a love of archaeology. Set during eight days in July 1975, the narrative adroitly flashes back to uncover history (including long-held secrets) and reveal characters--to themselves and each other. With a memorable, full-bodied cast and an evocative sense of place, this is a surefire best-seller. Michele Leber. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.