A God in Every Stone

A God in Every Stone is a kaleidoscopic masterpiece of empire and rebellion by a storyteller of dizzying ambition and talent.\nOpening on the eve of the First World War in the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, the novel ends with a bloody massacre in the heart of the British Empire in India. And running through it, like a secret river, is the story of an ancient lost treasure, a silver circlet, given to the explorer Scylax by the Persian King.\nVivian Rose Spencer is fascinated by the history of ancient empires, and in the summer of 1914 she finds herself fulfilling a dream by joining an archeological dig in Turkey. It is here alongside young Germans and Turks that the young English woman will fall in love with an old family friend, the distinguished archeologist, Tahsin Bey. As she begins to see the world through his eyes, she also shares his obsession with finding Scylax’s lost silver circlet.\nAs her idyllic summer comes to an end with the outbreak of war in Europe, her friends will become her nation’s enemies and her loyalties will be tested.\nMonths later, in the battlefields of Europe Indian soldiers are fighting for the British Empire. At Ypres one Qayyum Gul, a Lance Corporal from Peshawar, will lose an eye, and find himself recuperating in a Royal Pavilion in England. Surrounded by the glories of empire he will slowly begin to doubt his loyalties to the British King.\nReturning to Peshawar, Qayyum Gul will share a train carriage with Vivian Rose Spencer who is on her way to his hometown in response to a mysterious message from Tahsin Bey. As she searches for the silver circlet, he searches for a new leader to believe in. Fifteen years later, they will meet again and their loyalties will be tested once more amidst massacres, cover-ups and the disappearance of a young man they both love.\nWith A God in Every Stone, Kamila Shamsie, one of Granta’s “Best of Young British Novelists” and the Orange Prize shortlisted author of Burnt Shadows, establishes herself as a major international voice whose storytelling sheds light on our own complex times.