A God in Every Stone

What a book!

It's one of those rare reads where the whole time you're reading, you're there in that place and time, as if you're with the characters.

Set in 1930s India it's a tale of an Englishwoman who visits Peshawar in her youth on an archaeological dig, thinking she is there to discover relics but in fact she uncovers fraught tensions between India and England, the injustices of Empirical reign and the conflict within family and relationships.

I presumed from the blurb that this would be a story about finding love but it was so much more than that. I wasn't aware of the Peshawar political protest of 1930, and I'm now keen to learn a lot more. The characters were utterly engaging, I really loved the curious boy Najeeb, Qayyum's strength and Viv's move between confident 20-something to reflective woman. There's a mixture of history, loyalty, betrayal, love, crisis, conflict, politics and loss. Mix that with absorbing writing, powerful sentiment and a good plot and you have a great novel, which this is. As our bookshare group readers have said, you could have continued for another 300 pages and still be absorbed. Which is why we want this to win this year's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction!

I'm keen to read more by Kamila Shamsie and will be seeking out Burnt Shadows soon.

This is the third Baileys Prize nominated book I've read. Our reading group Wine, Women and Words is shadowing and read How To Be Both which inspired much debate and really polarised opinion between those who found it challenging and thought-provoking and those who thought not. For our next meeting we are all reading this and I suspect the conversations will be no less animated but more unanimous on our enjoyment of it. I hope so anyway! This is a wonderful book from the start and has it all- love, tragedy, loyalty, history, a woman's battle to be taken seriously in a man's world, travel, atmosphere, brutal colonialism as well as hope and joy. It's a delight and would be a worthy winner.

The Gloucestershire Lit Lovers and Yummy Scrummy Pudding Club were lucky enough to take part in the Baileys Prize book club conversation. We have loved being part of this great competition and felt privileged to blog and tweet about our experience. Making good women’s literature accessible to more women is an ambition we share.
We were allocated A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shansie, and met this week to discuss it. We have to be honest and say it was not everyone’s cup of tea. This was mostly due to our own ignorance of the era and the history. Those of us who have been to India and knew a bit about the time and about colonialism found it fascinating and compelling. There was a moment in the discussion when one of the Lit Lovers said ‘it’s not her, it’s me’ which made us all laugh. But that summed it up. I guess we are just not a very classy bunch, and this is one hell of a classy book.
Kamila Shamsie took on a big project by covering 3 time frames, one of them 1500 years ago. And to enjoy the book you have to have a certain amount of knowledge or passion for history. A couple of the group said they felt the book was missing a glossary and a map. Some people didn’t understand a lot of the Indian terminology which made the book hard work. The time invested in doing some research around the book was well spent however and most of us felt pleased we persevered. Those of us who read it in a big session rather than over a number of weeks found it more fulfilling, and everyone learned something new.
A couple of the group who had read the back cover expected more of a love story, and felt disappointed that this was not pursued. Others felt that Viv’s love for Tahsin Bey was at the core of the book. We all had a favourite part, and there were so many highlights. The descriptions of the trenches in WW1 were as powerful as any war poetry, and the descriptions of Peshawar made the sights, sounds and smells come to life. We liked the statement that being young and beautiful at the same time deranged the mind – so true.
So basically we had very differing opinions about the book. Everyone wanted to love it, but just a few of us did. Those that did will carry it with us for some time, and will insist that all our friends read it. It made all of us want to learn more about the era and about India, which is a good thing. One of the group’s had a Grandfather who had been in WW1 with a group of Indian soldiers and she brought an amazing photo along. I will try and attach it to this page. This helped us feel a connection with the era and the storyline.
Thank you for allowing us the chance of reading and commenting on the book. It has been a great experience. We also made good use of the bottle of Baileys. For our puddings we had Baileys and chocolate cheesecake, Baileys ice cream and Baileys & raspberry bread and butter pudding. All were rather delicious. Recipes available on request.
The Gloucestershire Lit Lovers and Yummy Scrummy Pudding Club
22.5.15