A God in Every Stone: Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015 - Softcover

Shamsie, Kamila

3.52

2,421 ratings by Goodreads

9781632864154: A God in Every Stone: Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1632864150 ISBN 13: 9781632864154

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2016

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In the summer of 1914 a young Englishwoman, Vivian Rose Spencer, joins an archaeological dig in Turkey, fulfilling a long-held dream. Working alongside Germans and Turks, she falls in love with archaeologist Tahsin Bey and joins him in his quest to find an ancient silver circlet. But the outbreak of war in Europe brings her idyllic summer to a sudden end, and her new friends become her nation's enemies.

Thousands of miles away, twenty-year-old Pathan Qayyum Gul is learning about brotherhood and loyalty in the British Indian army. When he loses an eye in battle and is sent to England to recuperate, his allegiances falter.

Returning home at last, Qayyum shares a train carriage with Vivian Rose, whose continued search for the circlet has led her to Peshawar in the heart of the British Raj. Many years later, the two cross paths again, and their loyalties will be tested once more amidst massacres, cover-ups, and the disappearance of a young man they both love.

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About the Author:

Kamila Shamsie is the author of five novels, including In the City by the Sea and Kartography, both shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and Burnt Shadows, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and translated into more than twenty languages. Three of her novels have received awards from Pakistan's Academy of Letters. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Best Young British Novelist by Granta in 2013. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London. @kamilashamsie

Review:

“An heir to E.M. Forster's vision . . . Stretching from the ancient Persian Empire to the waning days of the British Empire, the novel has an enormous wingspan that catches a wonderful storyteller's wind . . . beautifully composed, and often terribly moving.” ―Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered, NPR

“I can't recommend A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie too strongly--this is her best novel yet, which is high praise to give to the author of Burnt Shadows . . . Exciting and, in the end, profoundly moving, this will solace you during the grimmest holiday” ―Antonia Fraser, "Summer Reading", The Guardian

“A literary delight.” ―Jeanette Winterson, "Summer Reading", The Guardian

“It is a rare writer who can transport her readers in just a few pages to another place and time. Shamsie's writing is so evocative that she does just that . . . complex and spell-binding.” ―The Independent on Sunday

“Evokes the past beautifully . . . a moving story of love and betrayal, generosity and brutality, hope and injustice, full of characters that stay with you . . . A God in Every Stone will surely confirm Shamsie's increasing eminence in the British world of letters” ―Financial Times

“A fast-moving, well-researched story that reminds us of the contradictions of Empire in the age of the first worldwide war . . . A God in Every Stone is a valuable reminder that the legacy of the Great War stretched far beyond Versailles.” ―The Sunday Times

“First-rate--intelligent, vivid and completely absorbing.” ―The Daily Mail

“A sensual treasury of descriptive ornamentation.” ―The Times

“The voices of those silenced from the pages of history resound in Kamila Shamsie's accomplished, atmospheric sixth novel . . . Shamsie excavates the deepest corners of the human heart, leaving few stones unturned in this exploration of how human motivation can shape history.” ―The Observer

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