FICTION

God in Every Stone

by Kamila Shamsie

Atavist. Aug. 2014. 336p. ISBN 9781937894306. pap. $20; ebk. ISBN 9781937894313. F

COPY ISBN

Lush isn't quite the right word for this fine historical by Shamsie, one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Though she writes with burnished detail, Shamsie isn't going after the grandiose. In summer 1914, a young Englishwoman joins an archaeological dig in Turkey and falls for archaeologist Tahsin Bey, but everything is disrupted by the start of World War I.

VERDICT A portrait of people trapped by larger forces; wholly satisfying for readers of high-end historicals.

Reviewed by Barbara Hoffert , Jun 01, 2014

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