Love of Stones [Paperback]

Tobias Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 2002

Precious stones pass through the hands of many people, hands that leave no apparent trace. But traces are there all the same - impressions, like the atoms of hydrogen drawn to the surface of a diamond. This story charts three lives linked by one such jewel.

Editorial Reviews

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (February 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 057120998X
• ISBN-13: 978-0571209989
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,763,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The writing is superb, February 3, 2003

By 

Harvey Ardman (Rockport, ME USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Love of Stones: A Novel (Paperback)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cool quest, December 28, 2001

By 

Candace "thepageturner" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Love of Stones: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun for gemstone junkies., January 10, 2002

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Love of Stones: A Novel (Hardcover)

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