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A God in Every Stone is an ambitious novel in both theme and scope, but in the end one that I think over reaches itself. Set largely in British India between 1914 and 1930, it tells the stories of Qayyum, a 20-year-old Pashtun soldier and Vivian, an adventurous young British woman with a passion for archaeology. Caught in the immense upheaval of the First World War and then the Indian uprisings, both characters experience devastating personal losses, and have to discover for themselves the cost
Kamila Shamsie’s fiction crosses international boundaries. Burnt Shadows, her last novel, was a globe-trotting novel set in Japan, India, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and the US. I said of that novel that it was about people caught in “the tidal swell of history”, and it is a comment that could apply usefully to her new novel, A God in Every Stone.In his histories, the father of the subject, Herodotus, told the story of Scylax, a man from Caryanda, who set off on a journey from the city of Caspat...
This book is devastatingly perfect. I hesitate to compare it to anything else, but between the presence of Herodotus and the importance of archaeology, it reminded me a little of a more anti-imperial English Patient. There are also glorious, subversive echoes of Rudyard Kipling's Kim. And it is a book of dazzling, sensual, stunning prose; of vivid characters. Shamsie loves language, clearly, and it shows in how her characters engage with the world, as well as in the writing itself. A historical
Having recently watched and loved Indian Summers, and being already interested in the era of the British Empire in India, I was looking forward to reading this novel.Evocatively written, Shamsie transported me to Peshawar and created a cast of believable characters, from Vivian, the fearless young woman trying to make her way in a man's world, Qayyam, injured in fighting a war for Britain, and Najeeb, a boy intrigued by culture and history. However, the first half left me desperate for some acti...
This book is a delight. It is an evocatively written, highly intelligent, multi layered novel. It is constantly surprising, with a narrative frequently changing direction, making reading it a bit like herding the proverbial cats.The story opens with Vivian Rose Spencer, a young Englishwoman, fascinated by archaeology, working on a dig in Turkey with German and Turkish academics on the eve of World War I. As she works she gradually becomes aware of a mutual attraction with one of her workmates.
What a ride 😭. I'm so glad I gave this book a chance. Few chapters in and I was discouraged by the archeology 'stuff' but it was all worth it in the end.Amongst other things, the book recounts the massacre of the activists of Khudai Khidmatgar movement(a nonviolent movement against the British rule) by British troops in Peshawar (Pakistan)1930. Told through the eyes of a Najeeb Gul and his brother Qayyum Gul, an English woman, Viv and a young woman, Diwa whose bravery and kindness in the midst o...
Qayyum Gul leaves home to join the Indian Army and suffers a life-changing injury at Ypres. Vivian Rose Spencer leaves home to care for injured soldiers. Their paths cross when Vivian sets off for Peshawar and Qayyum returns home. I suspect that I would have enjoyed this book more if I could have spent more time with it in larger chunks.
This is one of the best books I have read this year. A cleverly constructed multi-threaded historical novel, largely set in the city of Peshawar - the central personal stories are gripping, and the novel explores deeper themes of empires and their legacies, the nature of archaelogy and the experiences of Asians who served the British in Europe during the First World War. Moving, lyrical and highly impressive.
Some novels grow larger as the ideas multiply. In this novel, Kamilla Shamsie has tried to contain hers into a small space. So much so, that it can be mistaken for a first novel. The result is that transitions between the different characters and the spaces they inhabit feel abrupt, not to say initially confusing. The saving grace is Shamsie’s prose style and her integrity as a writer.Vivienne Rose Spencer has been brought up to be an independent person by her family. This was quite a liberal at...
This is a BIG and complex novel – moving from an archaeological dig in Turkey in early 1914, across the first year of the 1st World War, and through into Peshawar in both 1915 and again in 1930. It is also pretty challenging on one’s knowledge of ancient Persian mythology…(did you know that the Caspatyrus of mythology is modern day Peshawar? Or that Syclax betrayed Darius, the Emperor of Persia, and sided with the Carians against the Persians?). In Shamsie’s version of the story, Syclax has a va...
I think this book probably warrants 3.5 stars rather than 4 as there was so much about it that was interesting yet I did not feel totally emotionally drawn to the characters so at the end I was ambivalent about the outcome which perhaps may say more about me than the efforts of the author. The story has at its beginning two threads as World war one begins. Qayyam Gul is an Indian soldier serving on the western front , he is injured and in the story we learn about the appallingly racist way that
