What Casanova Told Me: Premiere Broadcast On Movieola

What Casanova Told Me: Premiere Movieola Broadcast- Sep 8 @ 8pm with repeats throughout September
Thursday, September 8 marks the one-year anniversary of Susan Swan's BookShort WHAT CASANOVA TOLD ME on the national airwaves; in a fitting tribute to its success, Movieola—The Short Film Channel premieres the drama on the same date this year.   The BookShort film will be broadcast along with exclusive interviews with the authors and filmmakers. “A Feature Film Experience In a Fraction of the Time,” Movieola is available through a range of television services providers across the country. See more at www.movieolatv.com

Praise for What Casanova Told Me

Canadian reviews American reviews Kudos

What Casanova Told Me was published June 2005 by Bloomsbsury US and also came out in paperback with Vintage Canada June 2005. Foreign rights have been sold to France, Russia and Spain.

Canadian reviews

A new window on Casanova
"A fictional character takes up with the legendary and complex lover.
The ramifications span two centuries."
— Read George Fetherling's review in the Vancouver Sun, January 8, 2005

What Casanova Told Me by Susan Swan (Knopf) "A young archivist,
travelling with her dead mother's lesbian lover to Venice and Athens,
reads the diaries of her ancestor Asked For and discovers that she had
an affair with Casanova. Neatly crafted, wonderfully romantic yet real."
— NOW, Toronto, December 23-29 2004 edition

Cast of colourful characters
ASKED FOR ADAMS
A very tall 18th-century Yankee with an unfortunate relationship with her
body (which she refers to as My Poor Friend) is the awkward but utterly
charming core of Susan Swan's parallel-track historical novel What Casanova Told Me.
— Brian Bethune, Macleans Year in review: literature, December, 2004

“Elegantly sensual…. Swan has created an exotic romance, a rollicking adventure, a work of prose that could almost be poetry…. This magnificently sad and funny and exciting trip is, indeed, one you’d be very sad you missed.”
— Read the review in the Calgary Herald (PDF format, 13 kb)

In its inventive range, its playful engagement and tantalizing mystery, What
Casanova Told Me is breathtaking, a tour de force that detonates echoes of the past within the present.. Utterly seductive.. The lesson learned here is
simple: Leave home, fall in love and believe in the accidents of pleasure and
freedom."
— Read the Globe & Mail review September 18, 2004 (PDF format, 145 kb)

"Susan Swan gets all romantic on us in her new novel, What Casanova Told Me. But with its historical base and crafty parallel structure, it turns out to be a winner.. One of Swan's best."
— Read the Now Toronto review

Swan explores travel, home, love, sex, culture and communication in this splendid book. You will probably want to read it more than once, for the suspense of the story and the beauty of the language.
— Vancouver Sun (PDF format, 10 kb)

Swan's latest lauded in article from York University's Y File.

"York humanities Professor Susan Swan's new book celebrates the unexpected in life and travel as a form of love..."
— Read the article in York University's Y File.

"By the end of the novel, we are in a position to take to heart Casanova's – and Swan's – insights into travel, and the treasures it has in store for those with the openness to otherness it demands. Casanova is Swan's The Volcano Lover."
— Centre for Feminist Research, York University

“This bawdy, fun, intelligent novel combines the feel of a trashy historical romance with the sophistication of novels such as The Hours and Possession.... What Casanova Told Me is a natural for its own feature film.”
— Flare, September 2004

“Part travelogue, part bodice-ripper, there is something both titillating and fantastical about this type of historical fiction, and Swan is adept at spinning facts into vividly imagined scenes and characters.”
— Quill & Quire

Review in Fast Forward, Calgary (PDF format, 14 kb)

A gift of good reading: Calgary writers share their favourite books of 2004.

American reviews

“Alluring. The stories (of the two protagonists) weave together well, and
Asked For, in particular, has a bright, engaging voice.” Read the entire review.
—Publishers Weekly

“Swan uses dual narratives as an effective page-turning device in exploring the women's sexual awakenings. Her prose is often poetic, the characters charming. Recommended for most public libraries.” Read the entire review.
—Library Journal

“Engaging. nice historical color and a raft of exotic settings.” Read the entire review.
—Kirkus

“Rich in interesting digressions into subjects as diverse as Minoan goddess worship and Western Orientalist stereotypes. Swan ...has much to say about the emotional risks required to live a fulfilled life.” Read the entire review.
—Washington Post

“Swan writes with thoughtful, inviting prose that promises intrigue for all  fiction readers, and she fills the story with the historical and cultural details that will surely give fans of historical fiction the   experience they desire.”
—Booklist

“This is an elegant, thoughtful, and classy novel: complex, leisurely, and wonderfully romantic.” Read the entire review.
—Grumpy Old Bookman (a top ten literary blog)

Kudos for What Casanova Told Me

WHAT CASANOVA TOLD ME was a finalist for the 2004 Canada Caribbean Commonwealth Regional Prize and picked as one of The Globe and Mail's top books of 2004, as well as selected as one of top ten books of the year by Canada's Sun-Times, the Calgary Herald and Toronto's NOW magazine. The December edition of Macleans, Canada's national magazine, named the novel's protagonist Asked For Adams as one of the five best fictional characters for 2004 and said she was "the utterly charming core of Susan Swan's parallel-track historical novel, What Casanova Told Me."

Alberto Manguel, critic and author of The History of Reading, says:
"Susan Swan has given us a great romantic novel. What Casanova Told Me is a
graceful and literate meditation on the uneasy relationship between the New
World and the Old, on the gossip of history, and on the nature of love. This is
a sentimental education for our oblivious times."