{Giveaway!} Swans are Fat Too by Michelle Granas

  • Wednesday, May 07, 2014


About Swans Are Fat Too by Michelle Granas: Natalia Lanska, formidable Polish pianist, is dead. No one is really sorrowing, except maybe her granddaughter Hania, whose own career as a concert artist never took off due to a terrible weight problem. Feeling unwanted, Hania arrives in Warsaw for the funeral hoping for a warm welcome from her relatives. Instead, they saddle her with their appalling children, decamp, and refuse to return.

Hania’s situation is at first improved and then complicated when a neighbor ─ the very correct, very austere descendant of an old Polish family ─ asks her to proofread an amateur history project. Hania sets to work with a will, and Pan Doctor Prince Konstanty Radzimoyski is surprised when his ideas get more editing than he bargained for. Typing pages of the past, rediscovering her native city, and playing the piano all contribute to taking Hania’s mind off her problems, but can’t change her awareness that the children need help and that her growing attachment to her employer will only give her pain. The summer Hania spends between love, hostility, and the weight of history tests her resourcefulness, but her fresh ideas and readiness to carry on brighten the lives of her new acquaintances. Still, no one, least of all Hania herself, expects that her beautiful qualities will make Konstanty forget her figure and other excess baggage.

This book contains a history of Poland in a nutshell and is about seeing beyond the conventions.

About Michelle Granas
Michelle Granas was born and raised in Alaska. She had a childhood of snow and ponies and books. In her later flight from the northern chill she acquired degrees in philosophy and comparative literature, and landed--as fate would have it--in another cold country, Poland.

In addition to writing novels, she also works as a translator, including for the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Polish Institute of International Affairs, various EU and UN bodies, present and former heads of state or government, and writers such as the Nobel nominee Ryszard Kapuscinski.

She lives in Warsaw with her husband, two sons, and a couple of very mongrel dogs. She is not, alas, at all like her heroines.




GIVEAWAY!
1 paperback, open international
Buy This Book from Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide

7 comments

  1. Sounds like a fascinating book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your very encouraging words.

      Delete
  2. I love the title, I think it's really creative :) I know very little about Poland and I've never read books where the protagonist has weight problem, so I'm really interested in reading this.

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for joining! It was an interesting ride ...

      Delete

    2. Thank you. I hope you will like my heroine--I do.

      Delete
  3. Questions for the author: Have you ever been to Nordic countries (Finland, Norway, Sweden or Denmark)? Do you miss the coldness of Alaska compared to Poland? Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I've never been to those countries, although I would like to see them. Northern countries have a special kind of beauty, I think. However, I don't miss Alaska's coldness at all and I regret Poland's long winter. I much prefer warmth in all things--in my surroundings and in books, too, for instance. I hope I've conveyed warm hearts in my story. Thank you for your interest.

      Delete




© guiltless readingMaira Gall