Iain Pears
Pasta dura | Pages: 594 pages Rating: 3.88 | 6495 Users | 892 Reviews
Details Books Toward Stone's Fall
| Original Title: | Stone's Fall |
| ISBN: | 0385522843 (ISBN13: 9780385522847) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | London, England,1909(United Kingdom) Paris,1890(France) Venice,1867(Italy) |
| Literary Awards: | Walter Scott Prize Nominee (2010) |
Narrative As Books Stone's Fall
In his most dazzling novel since the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and arms dealer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries, and indeed entire countries and continents.A panoramic novel with a riveting mystery at its heart, Stone’s Fall is a quest to discover how and why John Stone dies, falling out of a window at his London home.
Chronologically, it moves backwards–from London in 1909 to Paris in 1890, and finally to Venice in 1867– and in the process the quest to uncover the truth plays out against the backdrop of the evolution of high-stakes international finance, Europe’s first great age of espionage, and the start of the twentieth century’s arms race.
Like Fingerpost, Stone’s Fall is an intricately plotted and richly satisfying puzzle–an erudite work of history and fiction that feels utterly true and oddly timely–and marks the triumphant return of one of the world’s great storytellers.
Present Of Books Stone's Fall
| Title | : | Stone's Fall |
| Author | : | Iain Pears |
| Book Format | : | Pasta dura |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 594 pages |
| Published | : | May 5th 2009 by Spiegel & Grau |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Mystery |
Rating Of Books Stone's Fall
Ratings: 3.88 From 6495 Users | 892 ReviewsNotice Of Books Stone's Fall
4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book, my first by Iain Pears. I love his humor, and that he writes with depth. Don't plan to fly through this one. It takes patience and I found myself having to reread parts, or just wanting to reread to get a better flavor for the story, or to laugh again at a funny line. I love the way the author decided to tell this story. He starts in the present after a mysterious death has occurred, and then part two goes back in time after a change in narrator. Part threeLiked the audio version. History given is accurate, necessary & interestingly written. Nearly quit thinking it a romance (only mystery there usually is HOW/WHEN they get each other - ugh!). Glad I didn't quit it although it ended a little sick. Sorry for typos in 'update' review, couldn't edit it.
The central question in Stones Fall is fairly simple: How and why did the powerful and extremely wealthy industrialist John Stone fall to his death from an opened window of his London home?To find the answer to that question, the intriguing but rather slow moving story is told by three different narrators in three separate parts, London 1909, Paris 1890 and Venice 1869, and travels back in time to tell the story backwards, a narrative method I found particularly rewarding. The three narrators,
This is one of those books you need to read rather than listen to. The best thing about it is the three-part complex plot, which doesn't lend itself to the audio version (at least for me).The book begins with the narrator attending the funeral of a woman he once knew and may have been in love with, then flashes back to the death of her older, wealthy husband 50 years before from a fall from a window in 1909 in London. The wife hires the narrator to track down an unknown child named in her
Another stellar novel by Iain Pears! He certainly knows how it is done, no doubt about it...Who knew the world of high finance could be that thrilling? We all know it is a world of intrigue, treachery, egomania and tragic flaws, but in the hands of Iain Pears, it takes on epic proportions and becomes a terrain where all human foibles run free.As always, a very brilliant construction full of surprises and several voices, each one more convincing than the previous one.
A return to form for Pears, his best since An Instance of the Fingerpost.John Stone is mysterious as any man of power. Married to a bewitching younger woman with a mysterious past, in charge of one of the first great conglomerates and afflicted with vertigo, he dies by plunging from a window and leaves behind a will leaving vast wealth to a never acknowledged child. His wife hires an impressionable young journalist to find out. His account is followed by two others, stretching back half of
A fascinating back to front novel. The first narrator, a journalist, is hired by Elizabeth Stone to search for her husband's secret child in order to complete the conditions of his will. The second part is set about 20 years before part one. The narrator, an English spy, Henry Cort, tells of the events surrounding the meeting of John Stone and his wife, and the hard headed financial and diplomatic manipulations at a crucial period when The British Empire is under attack. The third part is set
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