The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill
Utilize the innovative technology that human develops today to discover the book The Love Of Stones: A Novel, By Tobias Hill effortlessly. Yet initially, we will ask you, just how much do you like to read a book The Love Of Stones: A Novel, By Tobias Hill Does it always till surface? Wherefore does that book check out? Well, if you truly like reading, try to review the The Love Of Stones: A Novel, By Tobias Hill as one of your reading compilation. If you only read guide based upon demand at the time and incomplete, you should attempt to like reading The Love Of Stones: A Novel, By Tobias Hill first.
The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill
Download Ebook Online The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill
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, 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.
The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill- Amazon Sales Rank: #1670063 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-06-02
- Released on: 2015-06-02
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review The Three Brethren, an ancient brooch of precious stones, is at the center of this intricate, episodic, multifaceted novel. In fact, the brooch is more interesting than the narrator, Katharine Sterne, whose obsession with its rubies, diamonds, and pearls takes her across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. As Katharine says, "My life is part of the story of the Three Brethren, not the other way around.... The Brethren has been the turning point of many lives, and mine is only one."
Each of the stones that comprise the brooch has its own cast of characters. The most interesting of these are the Levy brothers, two Iraqi Jews who make their way to London to create a crown for the coronation of Queen Victoria and are ultimately swindled out of the most precious of the Brethren's jewels. The book's chronology is difficult to follow, as Katharine's discoveries take her, and the reader, back and forth in time and place, from Istanbul in the 15th century to a Japanese fishing village 500 years later, where Katharine's love affair with the Brethren's last owner seems tacked on, like an afterthought. Still, this complex novel, written by a poet whose love of language shows through on every page, will appeal to those who share a fascination with precious minerals. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly 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. (Jan.)Forecast: While Hill has previously published a novel (Underground) and a short story collection in the U.K., this is his first book to appear in the U.S. Picador's bookstore promotion contest, whose winner will receive a gift from Tiffany's, and an eye-catching jacket featuring Queen Elizabeth should attract attention to what could be one of this season's sleepers.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist Katharine Sterne is a modern-day huntress who is fixated on acquiring the long-lost medieval jewel called the Three Brethren. Named for the three great rubies flanking its enormous central diamond, the Brethren has graced the shoulder knot of a duke and the regalia of English queens, but the stones will know no single master as they elude all who try to harness their beauty throughout the centuries. Sterne is only one of many admirers intoxicated by the splendor of the piece, following it from Europe to Asia as a full-time occupation and at great personal peril. Hill conveys Katharine's all-consuming obsession with finding this jewel by writing her as a willful one-dimensional character, living from a back pack and moving from one exotic locale to the next in a spellbound state of determination. This novel is definitely an impromptu lesson in gemstones and a fascinating account of a jewel's movement through history. Hill is quite successful at breathing life into an inanimate object and demonstrating an intriguing obsession of a different kind. Elsa GaztambideCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Where to Download The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. The writing is superb By Harvey Ardman The other reviewers have talked about plot and character and I agree with the positive things they've said. But I want to talk about something else: the language. Tobias Hill is an extraordinarily talented writer. His economy of language, his inspired word choices, his awesome power of description, his ability to create living people in a few deft phrases are not only impressive, they are writing to savor.Reading Hill's book is like eating truffles. You read slowly because you know there are only 396 pages and you don't want the book to end. I would offer sacrifices to the Gods of writing that Hill be prolific.One more observation: every page on this book contains surprises--surprising dialog, suprising events, surprising characters...the kinds of surprises that real life presents you with, if you're lucky. I know this is fiction, but it has a quality of reality that is rarely found in fiction. If I could give it six stars, I would. I find myself buying copies and sending them to friends.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Cool quest By Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader This intelligent novel succeeds on many levels--so many that I was thrown into a temporary panic when I thought I'd left it at a coffeeshop (it had slid under the seat of the car). It is a fine piece of historical novelization as well as a fascinating antiquarian thriller. But Tobias Hill has chosen a protagonist who distances readers from her part of the story, which is too bad because what she's up to is pretty compelling stuff.Katharine Sterne is after The Three Brethren, a glorious brooch once worn by Queen Elizabeth I. The search takes her to Turkey and Japan--exciting locations, beautifully described--as well as to mysterious corners of London, where two hundred years before a pair of Iraqi Jews arrived with a fortune made by finding a clay pot of priceless jewels. Are they the same jewels? How did the Iraqi brothers find them? Will Katharine make the connection?The reader will care a lot more about the jewels and the brothers than about Katharine, who is much like Peter Hoeg's Smilla without the chink in her armor. She is such a cold character that the romance Hill wrangles for her is not believable. Still there is much else to recommend "For Love of Stones" and Katharine actually takes up little emotional or physical space in the book. I wish that Hill had created a character as rich as that of his marvelous stones.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful. Lots of fun for gemstone junkies. By Mary Whipple Filled with loads of fascinating facts about rubies, pearls, and diamonds, and bursting with historical information about Elizabethan and Victorian England, 19th century Baghdad, and the traders, dealers, and smugglers of the gemstone trade, this is a captivating novel of one woman's obsession with The Three Brethren. A "jewel" created for Queen Elizabeth and consisting of four pearls, three balas rubies, and a pyramid-shaped diamond, The Three Brethren mysteriously vanishes during her reign, and a very tough, modern woman, Katharine Sterne, is tracing and hoping to find it.Author Hill keeps the reader's interest high by telling two intriguing, parallel stories--that of contemporary Katharine as she travels from London to Turkey and Japan in her search, and that of the two Levy brothers, Jews in 19th century "Mesopotamia," who find some jewels which they expect will allow them to begin a new life in Victorian England's jewel trade. Largely avoiding the excessive romanticism which this subject might have engendered, Hill matches his prose style to Katharine's obsessive, business-like approach to her jewel-hunt. Nothing else really matters to her, not even family, and Hill's prose echoes the urgency of her search, tending toward efficient, straightforward sentences of fact, with limited description and none of the lyrical flights so common to historical novels.I found this to be both a virtue and a limitation. It does prevent this big novel from becoming soupy with sentiment. It also keeps the reader moving rapidly through several countries, time frames, and sometimes complex plot details. On the other hand, it is difficult to care much about Katharine's search when we cannot identify with her--we do not know, really, what she looks like or even how old she is. Perhaps this lack of an emotional hook is the reason that Hill, near the end of the book, inserts a number of melodramatic subplots, leading to an ending which is both sentimental and, I thought, unconvincing with its moralizing--too pat as it pertains to Katharine and her search. Still, this is loads of fun for lovers of jewels and history, terrific escape reading. Mary Whipple
See all 18 customer reviews... The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias HillThe Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill PDF
The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill iBooks
The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill ePub
The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill rtf
The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill AZW
The Love of Stones: A Novel, by Tobias Hill Kindle
