** spoiler alert ** Catherine, grieving for her secret lover Matthew, is given the task of restoring a mechanical swan that was commissioned by a wealthy Victorian, Henry Brandling, for his son Percy. The story switches backwards and forwards between Henry's narrative and Catherine's. Catherine is given an assistant Amanda, who keeps her job, despite (as gradually becomes clear as the story progresses) being unstable to the extent of physically attacking Catherine, and being reliant upon medication.

This is the first Peter Carey novel that i have read The book is well written and the characters are three dimensional and on the whole, convincing, but I have some reservations about the credibility of the storyline. For example, Catherine's relationship with Matthew was supposedly secret, yet they restored a car together, a project that took many months, and their intimate email correspondence was conducted at work, where anyone with administrative access to the network could see it. But perhaps this is irrelevant because Catherine's boss and Matthew's two sons are obviously aware of the "secret" relationship

I also wondered whether Catherine would be permitted to work on a unique museum piece in her distressed state, let alone with an unstable and unhinged assistant. Amanda may be related to an influential collector, but is this enough to employ her on a painstaking restoration project? Catherine herself also appears to take huge risks by flaunting the museum's rules and taking artefacts home with her.

I found the ending of the book unsatisfactory because I did not fully understand Amanda's motivation or logic, but maybe she is incapable of logical thinking. In any event, the conclusion seemed to leave many loose ends.