Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Shadow of the Lions: A Novel
    Shadow of the Lions: A Novel
    Shadow of the Lions: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    Shadow of the Lions: A Novel

    Written by Christopher Swann

    Narrated by James Anderson Foster

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    How long must we pay for the crimes of our youth? It has been almost ten years since Matthias graduated from the elite Blackburne School, where his roommate and best friend, Fritz, fled into the woods, never to be heard from again, in the middle of their senior year. Fritz vanished just after an argument over Matthias's breaking of the school's honor code, and Matthias has long been haunted by the idea that his betrayal led to his friend's disappearance.

    Years later, after hitting the fast lane in New York as a successful novelist-then falling twice as hard-Matthias is stuck, a failure as a writer, a boyfriend, a person. When he is offered the opportunity to return to Blackburne as an English teacher, he sees it as a chance to put his life back together. But once on campus, Matthias gets swiftly drawn into the past, and is driven to find out what happened to Fritz. He partners with a curmudgeonly local retired cop and tries to solve the case, dealing with campus politics, the shocking death of a student, Fritz's complicated and powerful Washington, D.C., family, and his own place in the privileged world of Blackburne.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateAug 1, 2017
    ISBN9781681688169
    Shadow of the Lions: A Novel
    Author

    Christopher Swann

    Christopher Swann is a talented author and the English department chair at Holy Innocents' Episcopal School. He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Washington and Lee University, a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a Ph.D. in creative writing from Georgia State University. He currently resides with his wife and two sons in Atlanta, Georgia.

    More audiobooks from Christopher Swann

    Related to Shadow of the Lions

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Minders

      Oct 7, 2020

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 448 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author John Marrs Publisher Del Rey John Marrs’s latest near future, high-concept techno-thriller isn’t so much a sequel to The One (DNA dating app has dark secret) and Passengers (autonomous ca

      1 min read

    • Article

      TV Pieces Of Her

      Mar 24, 2022

      TV Pieces Of Her
      1 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Shipstead, Ryan, Walker, and More

      May 17, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Maggie Shipstead, Eimer Ryan, Sarai Walker, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millio

      5 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Aug 9, 2019

      By Chandler Baker Sloane, Ardie, Grace, and Rosalita have worked at Truviv, Inc. for years. The sudden death of Truviv’s CEO means their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Each of the women has a different relationship with Ames,

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Night Swim

      Jul 30, 2020

      Rachel, a true crime podcaster, is following a rape trial playing out in a small, ocean-side town. A young star swimmer has been accused of brutally assaulting the local police chief’s granddaughter and the case has quickly divided locals. But the da

      1 min read

    • Article

      HOW TO… Install Google Play Store on your Amazon Fire tablet

      Jan 4, 2023

      What you need: Amazon Fire tablet (2018 onwards) Time required: 30 minutes What do Duolingo, Gmail and Firefox have in common? Despite being among the most popular apps on Android and iOS, none of them can be downloaded through the Amazon Appstore. T

      6 min read

    • Article

      Memoirs Of A Fox

      Jan 1, 2019

      My year of graduate work in Cambridge, England was a somewhat bleak and desperate affair, coinciding with a bout of depression that could perhaps have been shortened or ameliorated if I had been assigned hard agricultural labor, a daily column of loc

      14 min read

    • Article

      Re-Imagining Masculinity

      Jun 10, 2019

      Re-Imagining Masculinity
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Cleric and I

      Apr 10, 2018

      The Cleric and I
      8 min read

    • Article

      Boys Will Be

      Feb 28, 2022

      Boys Will Be
      22 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      First Love and a Life Lesson

      Dec 5, 2023

      Being 10 years old and living in a small Missouri town in the mid-1960s, my life was pretty darn good and carefree. Bowling Green was a very friendly town, kind of like the Mayberry of Missouri. I seemed to have something of a weekly routine: five da

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Yardstick of Valour

      May 2, 2019

      The Yardstick of Valour
      3 min read

    • Article

      Emily Raboteau: Finding Strength in a Fictional Misfit

      Feb 22, 2017

      In the next installment of the Red Ink Series host and founder Michele Filgate will lead a conversation with Emily Raboteau, Lidia Yuknavitch, Marcy Dermansky, Sarah Gerard, and Melissa Febos on the subject of “The Misfit.” In anticipation of the eve

      7 min read

    • Article

      So Eloquent

      Sep 23, 2022

      So Eloquent
      3 min read

    • Article

      My Name Is Emily

      Mar 4, 2024

      Emily Bernard is the author of Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine, winner of the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, and of Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in

      11 min read

    • Article

      Knee Deep In Shared Water

      Mar 1, 2022

      Knee Deep In Shared Water
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Mind Reader

      Sep 10, 2022

      It happened so long ago you’d think I’d just forget it. But I haven’t, I can’t; it’s nested in my mind, coiled and twisted into my memory like a serpent I can’t get rid of. I remember it at odd moments: when I’m eating breakfast or riding the train t

      23 min read

    • Article

      Safety Last

      Aug 3, 2021

      Safety Last
      3 min read

    • Article

      My Adventures in Hell

      Jul 25, 2019

      On one particular drive, I interrupted my father and told him, apropos of nothing other than to see how he would react, that I didn’t think Hell was real. The post My Adventures in Hell appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      OreoArroyo

      Jul 6, 2021

      WHEN THE STRIPPER STRUTTED INTO THE LIBRARY, SHE COULDN’T hide her dismay. Probably, she and her bodyguard expected a bachelor party or investment bankers celebrating a big deal at the mansion overlooking the Newport Coast. She wouldn’t have anticipa

      21 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Shadow of the Lions

    3.5/5

    27 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Some early reviews and blurbs:

      "Swann’s deft mastery of language and his sense for academia come through the novel strongly. Shadow of the Lions is believable, tense, and rich. Blackburne’s insular community is the perfect stage for this literary thriller, which earns positive comparisons to Dead Poets Society and The Marriage Plot…Witty, fast paced, and satisfying, Shadow of the Lions is a perfect literary thriller for back-to-school season." --Foreword Reviews

      "Suspense, mystery and the risks of homecoming figure prominently in Swann’s absorbing debut, a literary thriller and coming-of-age story set at an elite Virginia boarding school." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution

      "A wonderful coming-of-age story, a taut emotional rollercoaster, and a hell of a debut. Christopher Swann hits the sweet spot with a novel that has a gripping plot, beautifully rendered characters, and an accomplished style. I loved it." --David Liss, author of The Day of Atonement

      "If you were to throw A Separate Peace, Dead Poets Society, and The Secret History into a literary blender, you might get something like Christopher Swann’s Shadow of the Lions, a novel which manages at once to be both a poignant coming-of-age tale and a suspenseful mystery. Set in the persistently alluring environs of an elite prep school, where the idealistic image of striving achievement is always in conflict with the dark realities that trouble even the most privileged of lives, Shadow of the Lions illuminates the complexities of friendship, love, loyalty, and duty with remarkable wisdom and compassion." --Ed Tarkington, author of Only Love Can Break Your Heart

      "Christopher Swann is a gifted storyteller, a master at the twisty tale. Swann’s must-read debut, Shadow of the Lions, is written with depth and mystery, transporting the reader through the gates of an elite private school and into the heart of an unsolved student’s disappearance: a novel that gives us the privilege of walking through the world with Matthias and his astute observations—the childhood ache of loneliness at a boarding school; a first love; a best friend’s disappearance; a career that should be more than it is, and eventually toward a shocking reckoning of who he is meant to be. Under Swann’s deft hand, ultimately, Shadow of the Lions explores the timeless complexity of deep friendship—how it shapes us, destroys us and sometimes remakes us." --Patti Callahan Henry, author of The Bookshop at Water's End

      "A twisty tale that surprises at every turn, Shadow of the Lions will keep you turning pages compulsively into the wee hours, cursing Christopher Swann for the inconvenience." --Jonathan Evison, author of This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!
    • 4/5
      Dramatic and suspenseful, set in the elite works of a prestigious boy's private school. When Matthias is first brought to the school as a young teen, he feels abandoned by his parents. Through the next four years he will become acclimated, make a very good friend, and be accepted into college. In his last year, after a confession and argument his friend disappears. Ten years later, after a stalled writing career, broken relationship, he returns to the school as a temporary teacher. He vows to find out what happened to his friend, unfinished business. There are secrets, on top of secrets, both at the school and in the disappearance of his friend.The insular world of a boarding school as always intrigues, much fertile ground is found within this environment. This is a literary and smart rendering of a young mans search for his lost self, a coming together of youth and man. I found it to be a page turner, the atmosphere at the school was written vividly, could picture myself there, totally immersive. The book moves swiftly, we watch as Matthias changes, grows more confident, both as a youth and a man. Some stereotypes are found within, but I found a to be novel personalities, with interesting back stories. The resolution, when it comes was partly expected, but the reason behind it totally out of my range of thought. A first novel and a very good start.
    • 3/5
      I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.Matthias' best friend and roommate, Fritz, disappeared during their senior year at boarding school, and Matthias has always blamed himself.Now, after one highly successful novel and complete writer's block since, Matthias finds himself back teaching at his former school. The memories that surround him make him determined to solve the mystery of what truly happened to Fritz.Swann has a really nice writing style. He has a lot to say, and says it really beautifully. I felt emotionally drawn into the book and wanting to know more. There's a real sense of suspense to this read, with a lot of effective flashbacks.Plus, I always love a book set in a school.This book kind of fell apart for me about halfway through. Swann had too much he was trying to do, and it all started to feel forced. The ending really felt like too much, and didn't end up feeling real or even making a lot of sense.I really wanted to love this book, especially with its comparison to The Secret History, one of my all-time favorite books. And this was definitely a suspenseful read-I found myself having to keep turning pages until I got to the end. But Swann just tried to cram way too much in for my tastes, and the ending left me confused and dissatisfied.