9780062891969
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Cygnet audiobook

  • By: Season Butler
  • Narrator: Ayesha Antoine
  • Category: Family Life, Fiction
  • Length: 6 hours 35 minutes
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Publish date: June 25, 2019
  • Language: English
  • (166 ratings)
(166 ratings)
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Cygnet Audiobook Summary

“Terribly moving. A clear-sighted, poignant rumination on loneliness, love, the melancholy of age and of youth–and, in its quiet way, the end of the world.”– China Mieville, author of Perdido Street Station

An utterly original coming-of-age tale, marked by wrenching humor and staggering charisma, about a young woman resisting the savagery of adulthood in a community of the elderly rejecting the promise of youth.

“It’s too hot for most of the clothes I packed to come here, when I thought this would only be for a week or two. My mother kissed me with those purple-brown lips of hers and said, we’ll be back, hold tight.”

Seventeen-year-old Kid doesn’t know where her parents are. They left her with her grandmother Lolly, promising to return soon. That was months ago. Now, Lolly is dead and Kid is alone, stranded ten miles off the coast of New Hampshire on tiny Swan Island. Unable to reach her parents, and with no other relatives to turn to, Kid works for a neighbor, airbrushing the past–digitally retouching family photos and movies–to earn enough money to survive.

Surrounded by the vast ocean, Kid’s temporary home is no ordinary vacation retreat. The island is populated by an idiosyncratic group of elderly separatists who left behind the youth-obsessed mainland–“the Bad Place”–to create their own alternative community. These residents call themselves the Swans. Kid calls them the Wrinklies. Even as Kid tries to be good and quiet and patient, the adolescent’s presence unnerves the Swans, turning some downright hostile. They don’t care if she has nowhere to go, they just want her gone. She is a reminder of all they’ve left behind and are determined to forget.

But Kid isn’t the only problem threatening the insular community. Swan Island is eroding into the rising sea, threatening the Swans’ very existence there. To find a way forward, the Kid must come to terms with the realities of her life and an unknown future that is hers alone to embrace.

Season Butler makes her literary debut with an ambitious work of bold imagination. Tough and tender, compassionate and ferocious, intelligent and provocative, Cygnet is a meditation on death and life, past and future, aging and youth, memory and forgetting, that explores what it means to find acceptance–of things past and those to come.

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Cygnet Audiobook Narrator

Ayesha Antoine is the narrator of Cygnet audiobook that was written by Season Butler

Season Butler is a writer and artist born in Washington, DC. She currently splits her time between London and Berlin. Cygnet is her first novel.

About the Author(s) of Cygnet

Season Butler is the author of Cygnet

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Cygnet Full Details

Narrator Ayesha Antoine
Length 6 hours 35 minutes
Author Season Butler
Category
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date June 25, 2019
ISBN 9780062891969

Subjects

The publisher of the Cygnet is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Family Life, Fiction

Additional info

The publisher of the Cygnet is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062891969.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Angela M

June 18, 2019

3.5 stars rounded up .This is an introspective book, a portrait of loneliness, not just the being alone kind of loneliness, but being among people and not wanted. Seventeen year old Kid, that’s what the elderly people on Swan Island call her. She’s the daughter of drug addict parents who leave her with her grandmother on the island where the “Swans” are living out their old age and they don’t much like having her around. When her grandmother dies, she’s left to fend for herself, waiting for her parents to come back as they promised, while the ocean wears away at the cliffs and she fears that the land around and under her grandmother’s house will fall. Flashbacks to the time before she arrived here reveal that her life was not very stable then either on the mainland, and her childhood not a very happy one, a lonely one then as well. But yet, she continues to believe that she has to stay until her parents return for her. There are some quirky people here, but a few of them are kind to her or at least tolerate her. Several things happen that move her to despair, but allow her to come to terms in a more realistic way about how to move forward with her life. There’s not much of a reprieve from that gut wrenching sadness Kid feels, but there is ultimately and thankfully the moment when she comes of age and to an understanding of what she has to do. A sad, quirky and moving story. I’m bothered when characters go unnamed and I was here as well, but still I was able to feel for The Kid. I received an advanced copy of this book from HarperCollins through NetGalley and Edelweiss.

Lou (nonfiction fiend)

April 06, 2019

Cygnet is a wholly original coming-of-age novel and a great debut which is effectively a meditation on the difficulty faced by teens who are transitioning into adulthood; a feeling we all know personally. Ms Butler explores issues surrounding loneliness, social isolation, bullying, self-confidence, confusion, love, parenting, family relationships, desperation and drug addiction. It's a well-told story which was rather moving as The Kid manoeuvred her way around the dystopian landscape she inhabited. There is a profundity to it all that is often missing in books featuring youngsters so I found that very refreshing.All in all, this is a bleak and disturbing work of fiction with some insightful rumination and wonderful depiction of the Isle of Swan and the characters, especially the elderly known in the novel as wrinklies. I thought the lack of named characters was a superb idea to showcase the issues with which they were suffering and making them the central aspect of the story. What is illustrated adeptly is the differences and similarities between the old and young and that each age group has its own struggles to contend with.Many thanks to Dialogue Books for an ARC.

Jacob

January 29, 2021

Three short passages from Cygnet:*Rose always says that we’re all the same age because we’re all the oldest we’ve ever been. *I think about the kids that people my age are having, or will start having soon. Life is going to be so boring for them. Not just because the world will have gone completely to shit by then and there won’t be much of anything left, but because their parents are going to talk constantly about how the world used to be. Remember when you could just get in your car if you needed to get somewhere? Or take a bus or a train even? Remember when everything used to be so much faster? Remember the internet? God, the internet! Remember real meat? Remember fish? I remember when I had my own house for a while. All this space, electricity all the time, taps that turned on and off. No lines for water. No lines for food. Wars all far away? Remember?*I had one trip that I really loved. I was convinced that I was a minor character in someone else’s dream. The feeling was intensely relaxing. I didn’t have to do anything, because everything I did was just a metaphor. And since it wasn’t my dream, I didn’t have to decode the signs. Nothing made sense but nothing had to. It was the greatest experience I’ve ever had; for an entire afternoon I didn’t have to exist. And I came back.

Samantha

July 10, 2019

In a world where climate change has wreaked its havoc on much of the world's coastlines, 17 year old Kid finds herself abandoned by her parents on an island community for old people. Her parents said they'd be back, but that was a long time ago, and her elderly hosts are getting sick of her youthful presence. Told partially in stream of consciousness, partially in flashbacks, but all from the point of view of the hilarious and kindhearted Kid, this book is strange and wonderful. It's a little bit of a gut punch and a beautifully sad and well-written rumination of the confusion and loneliness of youth, the strangeness of feeling alone when you're surrounded by people, and what it might feel like to live through what may very well be the end of the world.

Courtney

September 12, 2019

Just finished reading this one - so my review is pretty fresh. This novel tells the story of a girl that gets transplanted on an island of senior citizens (“swans”) who isolate themselves away from the “bad place” or the mainland of the US. She’s not really welcome to their small community , but she finds a kinda existence in the cast of hilarious characters with their quirks and low tolerance for her youth. There’s a metaphor there wrapped up in the title (cygnet means young swan). The protagonist tells her story in a series of flashbacks and raw emotions that are poignant and deeply connecting. I didn’t find myself just rooting for her more so I listened to her grief, loneliness and even her resourcefulness. The story ends in an artistic way. Plenty of room to debate her future and the outcome. Definitely recommend this book to lovers of first person narratives and coming of age stories.***#cygnet #bookstagram #bookish #coffee #bookreview #ownvoices #ownvoicesreviews

Lauren

June 04, 2019

Thank you NetGalley and Harper for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book. This book was totally unexpected. It was a beautiful meditation on becoming an adult. This book is small but poignant, It covers so many areas in just a small book. It is very dark at times and even has a dystopian feel (though it is not) at times. Really enjoyed this one immensely.

Michelle

July 10, 2019

This was a unique coming of age story. I really enjoyed the unnamed narrator, and easily could have read many more pages about her journey.

Vivienne

March 16, 2020

Edit: just over a week after reading ‘Cygnet’ it’s theme of a group of over 65s, isolating themselves on Swan Island now seems to be chillingly prophetic. I have amended my rating to reflect this. My thanks to Little Brown Book Group U.K. /Dialogue Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Cygnet’ by Season Butler in exchange for an honest review. It was published in April 2019. My apologies for the late feedback. Its paperback edition will be released on 7 May 2020.The unnamed seventeen-year-old narrator of this novel has been left with her grandmother, Lolly, on Swan Island by her drug addicted parents. They want to get clean and promised to come back for her in a couple of weeks but that was six months ago. Swan Island is located off the coast of New Hampshire and is home to an eccentric separatist community in which all residents are 65-years old and over. They have made a temporary exception for the Kid due to Lolly, yet she has recently died in the hospice on the island. Now the Kid’s future on Swan Island is less certain though it is clear some of the residents are quite fond of her. The Kid continues to live in Lolly’s cottage located on an isolated cliff top and uses her skills with computers to make a little money while she tries to track down her parents. However, the cliff is unstable and it’s only a matter of time until it crumbles and the cottage falls into the ocean. The Swan Island community is rather hippie-like and distances itself from the rest of the world, which they have dubbed the ‘Bad Place’. Its members refer to themselves as Swans, though the Kid privately refers to them as the ‘Wrinklies’. I found this quite an introspective coming-of-age novel as the Kid contemplates her internal world and loneliness as well as what might be out there if she leaves Swan Island in terms of economic hardship, climate change, and political upheavals. Butler’s writing is evocative and lyrical, with flashes of wry humour. The Kid is imaginative and weaves stories for herself in the midst of her loneliness. She is practical in many ways and yet yearns for the return of her dysfunctional parents, even though it is clear that her life with them was unstable. I found myself caring for her. While set in 2015 there is a sense of Swan Island being out of time. Their attempt to create a safe and rather fun place for their members to live out their final years seemed admirable and it was a pity that more couldn’t have been receptive to having a cygnet as part of their community, though I did think that the Kid needed to re-engage with the wider world. I felt that ‘Cygnet’ was very much a work of literary fiction, which can be a little more challenging than a standard coming-of-age tale though hopefully it will have found its audience.4.5 stars rounded up to 5 for prescience.

cheryl

June 28, 2019

I finished this a while ago, but it lingers in my mind. The paperback version that I read as an ARC (with thanks to the publisher and the author for the copy in exchange for my honest review) came out this week so it semed an apt time to write this.A very basic overview - We meet Kid on the verge of her eighteenth birthday. She had been discarded by her parents (who provided quite limited parenting) and left in the hands of her grandmother who lives and - before our story opens - dies on an isolated island that serves as a retirement community. Many of the residents oppose Kid's very presence (a blatant violation of the age minimums and standards for joining) even though most recognize she has nowhere to go. After all, using the self assigned moniker the Wrinkles, they came to the island (Swan) specifically to escape "the Bad Place" of modern life. But is there escape to be had or is it a tad futile - esp for the sole cygnet (a baby swan for those who have not yet looked it up) with more years ahead than behind - as climate change chips away at the ground below their feet and takes feet of Kid's yard in moments?And that's all setting...notable and unique, but there's more. There's the boy with whom Kid dreams of escape (and while it doesn't bother me, readers who do mind should know there's sex). There's the adolescent rebellion pushing through in Kid's actions and her internal monologue (it is 1st person...always a special feat when done well), placing rough and tumble wit and rage amid the often lyrical prose. There's the story of a woman who hires Kid to digitally alter undesirable memories out of her photos....melancholy doesn't quite fit that story but it is stuck in my mind. And there are also a few kind friends who keep a loose eye on Kid, including a particularly poignant relationship between Kid and a woman who has dementia - a relationship that deepens whom even as her partner fades further away and the woman's past becomes present with Kid assigned a role. I felt this book. And that's high praise. Did I like all of Kid's actions? No...but few adolescents would merit that praise (and they'd either be dubbed unrealistic or be as boring as I was and thus not merit a novel!). Oddly, in my mind this book was shorter than the 240pp listed here, but I thought it lighter in length, not depth. Maybe the poignancy just made it dense...like rich cake. It is by no means an easy read..."dystopian" is bandied about quite often. There is an acute sense of time and pressure building in Kid and Swan idle (maybe that added to the density). Still, I found spirit...particularly in a scene where Kid briefly becomes part of the cool kids club (come on, every place has them)...and hope.In some ways, this novel is quiet, literary, and lovely. But stuff happens. Not all if it good. And not all readers will approve of some elements (I found they all fit the text and never seemed gratuitous, but for those who avoid it there is harsh language and drug use in addition to the aforementioned sex). But this book is propelled by characters and setting - which blend deeply and irretrievably into each other - rather than action, even despite the constantly altering landscape. The book stands much like the island, filled with beauty but with waves threatening the very ground below. Which may not matter for some who not see Swan's end, but pushes our cygnet to consider her place. 4 of 5 stars (4.5 but rounded down bc one storyline involving Kid's battle with one particular Wrinkly just didn't fit for me, even accounting for the age of both combatants).

Aušrinė

March 22, 2021

I approached “Cygnet” by Season Butler without any prior knowledge about it. I got it in my Willoughby Book Club subscription – it was chosen based on my favourite genres, but I did not know what books exactly I will get. And I did not read the description of the book. I was open for the book to surprise me.The beginning of the book was very promising. It was very easy and interesting to read. Main character is a teenager left at the Swan island by her parents to live for some time with her grandmother. Inhabitants of Swan island are very extraordinary: they all are over 60 years old, and they chose to live there the rest of their lives in piece. Actually, anyone younger are not welcome at all. So the main character feels very uncomfortable, especially when she is left alone in the island. I was eager to know why her parents are not communicating with her and how she will find them.However, later the book became not that interesting, because I felt that my desires to know everything will not be fulfilled. (view spoiler)[I even thought that the main character is going to kill herself, because she became somewhat destructive towards herself. Her grandmother dying, the Duchess being soon euthanised, the house crumbling down, derogatory job of altering someone’s photos to change the history all added to her inner struggles. I am happy that she actually decided to leave the island and return to the mainland, the Bad Place as the Swans call it. (hide spoiler)] In the Swan island she was just a cygnet and she needed to find a place, which could appreciate her.-----2021-ųjų skaitymo iššūkisMAKSI5. Pagrindinis veikėjas gyvena prie jūrosJi gyvena saloje ant paties jos krašto.11. Pagrindinis veikėjas kalbasi su savo močiute/seneliuJi kurį laiką gyveno kartu su močiute ir su ja kalbėjosi.13. Knygos pavadinime minimas koks nors paukštisIšvertus iš anglų kalbos, knyga vadintųsi „Gulbiukas“.

Margo

June 18, 2019

Kid is only seventeen, but she feels older than her years--for good reason. Months ago, her parents left her with her grandmother, Lolly, and though Kid keeps hoping they’ll return, they haven’t. When Lolly dies, Kid is all but alone, not just an orphan but the only young person on Swan Island. Swan Island, off the New Hampshire coast, is a kind of utopia for elderly men and women who have opted out of life in the Bad Place--aka the rest of the world--and have formed a separatist society where they can relish their age and wisdom and make their own rules. Young people like Kid are forbidden, and though the Swans were amenable enough to her temporary visit, the prospect of a permanent stay has alarmed and angered them. Kid must decide how long she’s willing to hope for her parents’ return--and where she truly belongs. Meanwhile, parts of the island are sliding and crumbling into the ocean, threatening the stability of Swan Island itself.This wholly original novel questions the reverence with which youth is usually regarded and offers a new idea of happiness, acceptance, and dignity. For example, when a Swan nears the end of his or her life, there is rational discourse about how the life should end. Kid, attached to the dying Dutchess, is unable to understand what she perceives as detachment, even cruelty--an unwelcome perspective among those who have made a unique peace with the concept of death and departure. For Kid, Swan Island is an unpleasant reminder of the life she’s missing out on. But the world Butler has created has contentment and empowerment at its core.***Review originally written for the City Book Review. I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

Edwin

June 17, 2019

CYGNET, Season Butler, is an intimate look at life and death and everything in between. Narrated by a young woman everyone calls the Kid, the book takes place on a small island inhabited solely by a group of seniors self-titled the Wrinklies. They have all decided to escape the lives they had and start a new ones with the time they have left on earth. Our narrator has been abandoned on the island, called the Swan, right at the moment she is maturing from mature girl to young lady; where she must embrace adulthood whether she wants to or not. Butler does an excellent job of voicing a confused and uneasy young woman struggling to find her place in the world. The Kid has dry wit, astute observations and unique insights that she doesn't always know what to do with. Very gritty and unabashedly reflective at all times, there are moments Butler's narrator reminds us of how people can be so harsh when conducting self-analysis. There a seemingly haphazard style in the book of presenting current action, past events, and the narrator inner thoughts and feelings. Perhaps Butler was trying to emulate how a young woman's world constantly jumps around materially and emotionally, but it came of as a little too disjointed and hard to keep up with. Moving and touching, CYGNET is an emotional rollercoaster with some razor-sharp wit and poignant observations. A pleasure to read. Thank you to Harper Collins, Season Butler, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Amy

June 02, 2019

A seventeen year old girl has been abandoned by her parents. They’ve left her on an island in the Atlantic with her grandmother. It was supposed to be maybe only a week, but the seasons have changed over and they aren’t coming back. Grandma has died and the bluff that makes up the back yard to her island house is eroding into the ocean. The girl is living alone, on an island composed solely of the elderly, trying to pay rent by editing photos for $5 an hour as she waits to be collected by addict parents who will surely come every tomorrow.Cygnet is a delight. Butler’s writing is fabulous. Certain passages are so intricately composed as to just cause the reader to marvel a bit. The story is original enough and with interesting reflective themes incorporated, providing for a good read. The plot is slightly loose, but followable. Butler would be a solid choice to watch for upcoming works. Cygnet could be considered a coming of age or YA text, but adults may appreciate it more. It could also be used in a teen book group to generate discussion. Check it out from a library near you!Publication is scheduled for June of 2019. I received an uncorrected proof of this book as a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to the author/publisher for participating.

Amber

April 22, 2019

I want to say that this novel is brutal. It howls out the grief of a young woman who has been chronically neglected and abandoned by her parents. Butler looks this sorrow right in the eye and makes sure the reader does too. The first person narratorial voice is utterly authentic - and she drags us through with mastery. The reader is compelled to stick with the story, not because of any faced-paced action - in fact, not a whole lot happens in plot terms, but more because we know what's going to happen and we can't quite bear to look away. There's not much let up - mostly we are locked into the Kid's worldview, yet there are occasional glimmers of different perspectives - the unlikely ramblings of a dementia sufferer - "But what do you want?"... "then you'll never get anything, silly." But how can The kid know what she wants or who she is, while she's trying to plug up this gushing hole? The suffering in the this book is powerful, but I don't think it's altogether bleak. By the end of the novel we've hit rock bottom - literally. But her tough determination leaves the reader with a grim hope for the future. Really strong writing from a debut author.

Amena

November 21, 2018

"Staring out towards the ocean makes my heart beat hard, more like it's being punched by someone I can't see, someone who really hates me. But it's also hard to pull myself back from the edge, like I'm trying to figure this out, trying to get my head around how to retrieve the trees and the land and my clothes. How to make this process change it's mind. It's upsetting, and stupid. Confusing in a different way from anything else. Confusing down into my bones."Oh this book. It was so good till we got near the ending. SO GOOD that I thought I was looking at a 5🌟 read at some points. The way this 17 year old battles isolation after being left on an island by her parents, not knowing when, or if, they are going to return. Issues of drug abuse and neglect rise to the surface. It is very original and the voice is clear. I can see why it's been reported to be similar to Holden in The Catcher. The ending was rushed and just not very believable which is so disappointing because I was convinced most of the time I was living this 17 year old's life. So frustrating. Still, I'm giving it a solid 4🌟and leaving you with yet another recommendation.

Rob

November 03, 2019

A Young Adult novel wise beyond its years, 'Cygnet' lives long in the memory, its central character seemingly abandoned on a fragmenting island offshore from The Bad Place (our world in the not-too-distant future) The Kid spends her time bemoaning her fate, expecting to be rescued by her parents and trying to make her life with the Swan community, a coterie of oldies who've had enough of the 'real' world.Except, of course, she gradually realizes she's on her own in every way and needs to change herself into something new in order to survive.As a parable for growing up and realizing what adulthood really means, 'Cygnet' is a small masterpiece of angst and grudging acceptance of the way the world is. Season Butler's writing has a poetic richness that mines hope out of The Kid's plight. As her space on the island (literally) disappears, falling away into a raging sea of future possibilities, she comes to realize that, "Past-making isn't my business anymore... I have everything I need to mix myself up a new future" and sets off into the world in a fragile rowing boat (as we all must do) leaving her kid-ness behind.Clear a space in your heart for the new future.

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