The Stone Carvers

Rating:
Summary: Elegant book by a stellar author
Review: Jane Urguhart slowly and carefully, chisel chip by chisel chip, sets powerful but delicate personal stories against the sweeping backdrop of World War I. It's the story of Klara and her brother Tilman, separated for years and living those intervening year in very different ways. Their eventual reunion is the climax on which the story turns, and you won't be disappointed as they learn together how to move beyond their pasts and (it sounds trite, but it isn't) find love.
Highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Sweeps across three countries and two centuries
Review: The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart tells the story of two long-estranged siblings and a visionary 19th Century German priest, and an obsessive sculptor by the name of Walter Allward. Klara Becker (the granddaughter of a master carver), is a seamstress haunted by a love affair cut short by World War I and the frequent disappearances of her brother Tilman. After a number of years Klara and Tilman find themselves involved with Walter Allward's ambitious war memorial at Vimy, France. This highly recommended, deftly abridged, flawlessly recorded, CD audiobook is brilliantly narrated by Nicky Guadagni who does full justice to Jane Urquhart's panoramic novel whose stories and characters sweep across three countries and two centuries.

Rating:
Summary: A journey
Review: This book was the first I've read of Jane Urquhart's novels. I read reviews about it here on Amazon before I read the book, and I was worried that I would find it too long as some reviews suggested, but I loved it. I didn't find it long at all. In fact I couldn't put it down! I took it with me everywhere, even to the golf course! Ha. The descriptions of the work that went into the stone and wood carving performed in the book made me want to go out and buy a set of carving tools. Today I went out and bought two more of her books; Away and The Underpainter. I'm hoping I will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed this one.