The Love of Stones: A Novel

by Tobias Hill

Overview

Burrowing through the goldsmiths' quarters and hidden archives of London, Tokyo, and Istanbul, Katharine Sterne is on the trail of a ruby, diamond, and pearl brooch once worn by Queen Elizabeth I. Interwoven with the tale of her hunt is that of a pair of Iraqi Jewish brothers who traveled to London two hundred years earlier with fortunes made from an unearthed jar of priceless stones. Spanning two continents and six centuries, Tobias Hill's The Love of Stones follows three very different people, each consumed by the same desire-possession of the legendary jewel-which binds their stories together in an irresistible quest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312311315
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	01/04/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tobias Hill has published award-winning collections of poetry; a story collection, Skin, which won the 1998 PEN/Macmillan Award for fiction and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; and five novels, including Underground and The Love of Stones. He lives in England.

Editorial Reviews

Equal parts mystery-thriller, literary novel and history lesson...an intriguing high-tension novel.” —Los Angeles Times

“If there is such a thing as a poet's thriller, Tobias Hill's new novel, The Love of Stones, is that.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Absorbing...compelling...[with] the urgent readability of a detective novel.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Rendered with lush poetic detail...Its intrigue, its precision and its intellectual sophistication make it a glittering production and a carefully honed, delicious quest.” —The Dallas Morning News

From the Publisher

...a poetic thriller...lapidary in both style and subject...[with] the controlled beauty of a sestina...

New York Times Book Review

Diamonds may be forever, but tracking down a 15th-century set of rubies is fraught with minute-to-minute tension for jewel dealer Katharine Sterne in British writer Hill's latest, a remarkably accomplished and literate novel that incorporates both historical and intriguing thriller subplots. Obsessed with finding a legendary stone set called "The Three Brethren," Sterne starts her search in Turkey, where she must first locate a rich, eccentric British woman who teases her with a lead about the whereabouts of the gems. As Sterne's quest continues, Hill introduces a parallel historical subplot dealing with the provenance of the stones. A key part of the collection's history is traced through the journey of Salman and Daniel Levy, Iranian jeweler brothers who emigrate to England, where they work on an important project for Queen Elizabeth I. Masterfully juxtaposing alluring historical detail and exotic locales as he narrates the story of the gems, Hill sends his protagonist on a globe-trotting adventure that culminates with Sterne's trip to Japan, where she unearths the final clues while trying to stay one step ahead of a nefarious, unnamed third party. Hill does a better job of bringing history to life than he does the driven but emotionally repressed Katharine Sterne, while the Levys fare better as a more lively counterpoint to the stone's fascinating and illustrious history. The dexterous combination of historical scope, lush yet precise storytelling, and twist-and-turn subterfuge and intrigue makes this sophisticated novel both challenging and edifying. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A priceless constellation of gems finds its way from medieval Burgundy to Victorian London in Britisher Hill's (Underground) tortuous and exacting historical saga. Katharine Sterne is a contemporary Englishwoman of mysterious means on the trail of the illusive, once-famous jewel cluster first commission by Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy and called the Three Brethren. Set with three balas rubies, pearls, and a central diamond, the Three Brothers passed among European royalty to raise money for armies until bought by the Tudors; it became "the greatest of the English Crown Jewels" before it was broken up and scattered across the continents. Sterne, traveling alone and with only a few stones of her own to finance her way, patiently but single-mindedly sifts through the layers of the jewels' history, which take her from Turkey to London to Japan. Meanwhile, Hill illuminates for his readers the journey of the rubies and central diamond as they returned by the mid-1800s to their starting point, Baghdad, where two peasant Jewish brothers, Salman and Daniel Levy, find them in a ceramic jar. Hill seems fascinated by his intricate, archived material, as he does with gems and their terminology, and he strives valiantly through the first-person voice of restless, transient Katharine to convey this obsession. Prudently and most effectively, he dramatizes exciting historical episodes, such as the moment when the two lapidary brothers are presented to young Queen Victoria, who happens to be wearing the same stones they were cheated into selling. Katharine is compelling, but the narrative is long, ornate in style, and infinitely faceted. Still, richly worthwhile for just the right kind of sophisticated reader.

Kirkus Reviews